CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THIS BOOK IS ONE OF A COLLECTION MADE BY BENNO LOEWY 1854-1919 AND BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924092567001 THE Secret Societies OF THE EUROPEAN REVOLUTION. " In the attempt to conduct the government of this world, there cure new elements to he considered which our predecessors had not to deal with. We have not to deal only with Emperors, Princes, and Minis- ters, hut there a/re the secret societies — an elmnent which we must talce imio consideration, which at the last moment may baffle all our arrange- ments, which have their agents everywhere, which have reckless agents, which countenance assassination, and which, if necessary, could produce a massacre." — Loan Beaoonspield's Speecli at Aylesbury, Sept 20tli, 1876. " The secret societies of the world, the existence of which men laugh at and deny in the plenitude of their self-confidence, as men laugh at and deny the existence of Satan himself — the secret societies are forcing their existence and their reality upon the consciousness of those who, until the other day, would not believe that they existed. In the year 1848 they shed innocent blood in the city of Home ; in the year 1871 they shed innocent blood in the city of Paris. They are again as wide- spread and as active at this moment." — Cabbdjal Mankixg. THE Secret Societies OF THE EUROPEAN REVOLUTION, 1776 — 1876. BY THOMAS FROST, AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF THOMAS LORD LYTTELTON," ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND. 1876. [All rights of Translation and Reproduction are reserve/.?), Ms AiiiSix I LONPOB : BAVILL, FJIWAEBS AND CO., TKINTERS, CHABDOS STRXEIV COVENT 6ASDEK. ^3P^ 1 I ll'iMlK^ PREFACE. npHE political history of Europe during the last hundred years has heen made, to so considerable an extent, by the various secret associations by which revolutions and insurrections have been prepared, that our knowledge of it is incomplete and unsatisfactory without some acquaintance with the agencies which, during that period, have been incessantly at work beneath the surface. The great European convulsion of the last century was foreshadowed by the lUuminati; the seeds of the movement which, skilfully directed by the most able statesman of the age, has resulted in the establishment of the new German Empire, were sown by the Tugendbund ; the independence of Greece is due to the Hetairia ; and the extent to which the young Italian State owes its existence to the Carbonari and Young Italy is simply incalculable. Much has been written concerning some of the PREFACE. associations forming the subject of these volumes, but there is no single work dealing with the whole of them in the careful and impartial manner which such a subject requires ; and the writers who have, at various times, undertaken to relate the history of the Illuminati, the United Irishmen, and the Carbonari have been far too diffuse for the general reader, while, in most cases, their narratives exhibit the bias of party prejudice to an extent which envelopes all their statements in the mists of doubt. To penetrate these mists has been a work of considerable difficulty for the author, and in some instances he has been obliged, after the most careful research and, in the case of the more recent Societies, the best directed inquiries, to leave doubtful or disputed points as he found them. Before the work could even be commenced, it was necessary to have a clearly defined view of the ele- ments which constitute a Secret Society. If we under- stand by the words any combination of individuals whose proceedings are conducted in secret, the defini- tion will include organisations as widely separated from each other by their character and objects as the Privy Council, the fraternities of Comical Fellows and PBBFAOE. Independent Buffaloes, which combine conviviality with social economy, and the societies known to our detective police as the Long Firm and the Forty Thieves. Nor will it suffice for the purpose to add to secrecy the further definition that the object of the combination must be political. As there are Secret Societies which are not political, so also there have been political associations which, though under secret direction, are separated by broad and well-marked distinctions from such organisations as the Carbonari and the Hetairia. As an illustration of these distinctions, the National Charter Association and the Chartist conspirators of 1839 and 1848 may be quoted most advantageously, especially as attention has been drawn by Mr. David Urquhart, in an article on the Chartist movement, which appeared in July, 1873, in the Diplomatic 'Review, to the great similarity which he alleges to have existed between the Chartist organisation, to- wards the close of 1839, and that of the Hetairia. After showing that the Greek association was based on the profoundest secrecy, and that its mechanism was admirably adapted to the end which it had in view, Mr. Urquhart states that, "in principle and in PBBFACB. form, tlie Chartist confederacy in its revolutionary aspect was substantially the same; for, like the Hetairia, it was composed of different grades — more numerous, indeed, and having functions more minute and complex than are to be found in its prototype — all of whom, in their several degrees, were subordinate to a secret committee of five individuals, in whose hands the supreme power over the organisation was concentrated. Its members were divided into divisions and subdivisions, and again into districts and sub- districts ; while these last in their turn branched out into classes and sub-classes — each sub-class being composed, in the metropolis of five, and in the pro- vinces of ten persons. Like the Hetairia, also, the constitution and arrangement of the several parts of the confederacy were such that each of these different grades or circles was kept in ignorance of the know- ledge which had been communicated to the one next above it ; the connecting line of information could not be traced upwards, while to the secret committee, who concerted and directed the conspiracy, all its ramifications downwards were perfectly well known." It will be seen, from the chapter on the Hetairia, PREFACE. that there is scarcely any resemblance between the organisation of that Society and the system described by Mr. Urquhart, which probably was copied by the directors of the Chartist conspiracy of 1839 from that of the United Irishmen, which it resembles very closely, A similar system was adopted by the National Charter Association under the influence of the revolutionary excitement of 1848, the members being divided into classes, wards, and districts. Ten members formed a class, and ten classes a ward, the number of wards in a district varying with local circumstances. But these divisions did not exist in 1842, when the writer made his earliest acquaintances amongst the Chartists, nor at any time thenceforward untn the spring of 1 848 ; and neither at the latter date nor in 1839 was there any official connexion between the National Charter Association and the revolutionary movement carried on within it, not a single member of the Executive Council of the Asso- ciation having, at either period, been on the com- mittee of insurrection. But if Mr. Urquhart had discriminated between the National Charter Association, the objects of which were perfectly legal and constitutional, and the con- PREFACE. spiracy to attain those objects by an insurrection, he could not have sustained the view that Chartism and revolution were synonymous ; and if he had likened the Chartist organisation of 1839 to that of the United Irishmen, which it very closely resembled, instead of that of the Hetairia, which it did not resemble, he could not have maintained the theory of a Russian origin on the ground that Beniowski, whom he asserts to have been a secret agent of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg, and one of the secret committee of the Chartist conspiracy, was a member of the Hetairia. That Beniowski was affiliated to the Greek Associa- tion is very probable ; that he was a secret agent of the Eussian Government is doubtful, and, as the writer thinks, improbable ; that he was one of the five directors of the Chartist insurrectionary movement of 1839, is disproved by the fact that he was appointed by the secret committee to a command in "Wales, and that the appointment was subsequently re- voked. The I^Tational Charter Association was not, at any time, a Secret Society ; nor did those members of the Association who conspired in 1839 and 1848 to effect, by force of arms, certain constitutional reforms, most FBEFAOE. of which have since been adopted by Parliament, con- stitute a Secret Society in the sense in which that character attaches to the Societies whose history is related in the present work. The author was acquainted, more than a quarter of a century ago, with men who had participated in the movement of 1839, and, though informed by them of the objects and plans of the conspirators, never heard the slightest allusion to an oath of secrecy and fidelity, an initiatory ceremony, symbols, pass-words, grips, or any other of the distinctive marks of a Secret Society ; and he can affirm from personal knowledge that nothing of the kind existed among the Chartist conspirators of 1848. If we accept as the test by which a Secret Society, as the term is generally used and understood, may be distinguished from other combinations, the adoption of an oath of secrecy and fidelity, an initiatory ceremony, and the use of symbols, pass-words, grips, &c., the associations to which this character applies may be divided into three classes, which are separated from each other by well-defined lines of demarcation. They may be broadly characterised as political, agrarian, and provident societies ; the Illuminati, Philadel- PBEFAGB. phians, and Carbonari being types of ihe first class, the Defenders, Whiteboys, and Eibbonmen of the second, and the Odd Fellows, Foresters, and Druids of the third. f these three classes of Secret Societies, the first alone can be reckoned among the forces which have produced the European revolution which has been in progress during the last hundred years, and is still incomplete. The author has endeavoured to make the present work as complete as the nature of the subject renders pos- sible, and believes that it includes every Secret Society of the political class which has existed during the last hundred years. He has not, in the performance of his task, relied solely upon the published memoirs of the Illuminati, the United Irishmen, the Carbonari, and the Hetairia, which, with a few exceptions, have been written by men who were not affiliated to those Socie- ties, but has drawn to a considerable extent upon the store of materials which he succeeded in collecting from private sources during more than thirty years' experience of political agitation and journalism, which brought him into connexion, especially during the earlier years of that period, with political refugees from almost every part of Europe. In the use of the PREFACE . knowlege thus acquired some caution was necessary, and nothing has been admitted without a careful examination by the light of ascertained facts. Though by suc"h tests he has somewhat reduced the amount of matter which less care would have enabled him to pro'duce, the writer has the satisfaction of knowing that he has admitted no statement which he has not every reason to regard as the truth. CONTENTS THE FIEST VOLUME. PAOB Inteobuction 1 Chap. I. The Illuminati 23 „ II. The United Irishmen 55 „ III. The Philadelphians 142 „ IV. The Tugexdbund 181 „ V. The Carbonari 209 „ VI. The Associated Patriots 266 VIL The Communeros . . 281 THE Secret Societies OF THE EUROPEAN REVOLUTION. T INTRODUCTION. HE descent claimed by or for certain of the secret societies which have exercised so much influence upon the political progress of Europe during the last hundred years from similar associations of a much earlier date, constitutes one of the most interesting, of the problems which engage the attention of the student of history. Starting from the earliest secret association of mediaeval times, that of the Assassins of the East, we find society after society claiming descent from one or other of its predecessors, and, in comparatively recent times, an unbroken series of such societies, appearing under different names, but having the same objects, and consisting in many instances of the same individuals. This latter state of things will be explained in its proper place ; in these intro- ductory pages I desire only to show how the mediseval societies are supposfed to have been connected, and how those of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries VOL. I. ^ INTRODUCTION. lave connected themselves with the associations of the iliddle Ages. Freemasonry, which .has furnished the organisation nd the symbolism of many of the secret societies of aodern times, claims to be descended from, and to lave continued, those of the Middle Ages. This claim Las been made for the Order in respect both of the Templars and the Eosicrucians ; and the alleged fiiliatiou of the Templars to the Assassins completes he genealogical tree by indicating the quarter in irhich we are to seek its roots. Leaving for future onsideration the question of the relationship of the Uuminati to the Freemasons, I propose in this place o state the evidence that exists of the alleged descent f the former from the Templars, and of the connexion if the last-named Order with the Assassins ; and it i^ill be necessary to preface this statement with a brief ccount of the origin and development of the mysterious association which arose at Cairo in the eleventh cen- ury, and at one time threatened to dominate the /[oslem world. At the time when the Visigothic monarchy in Spain /as succumbing to the growing power of the Saracens, here lived at Ahwaz, in the south of Persia, one Lbdallah, who had conceived the idea of subverting he rule of the Khalifs by secretly disseminating mong the faithful the pantheistic tenets which seem 3 underlie both the theology of the Zend Avesta and hat of the Vedas. There is not, however, much nown of this Abdallah. D'Herbelot does not notice im, and Von Hammer's* account of him was derived * Gesohiclite der Assassinen. INTBOBUCTION. from Macrisi, a writer of the fifteentli century, whose Oriental authorities are now inaccessible. Carmath, a native of Syria, in which country Abdallah died, is said to have extended his views, and continued their propagation ; and some historians regard him as the founder of the system. He maintained that the pre- cepts of the Koran should be understood in a figura- tive sense; thus prayer signified obedience to the Imaum Maassoom, an ideal spotless prince, whose followers were to hurl all the princes of the earth from their thrones ; fasting was keeping the secrets of the Society ; almsgiving was augmenting its funds. For a whole century war was waged, with varying success, between the Carmathites and the troops of the Khalifs, the former being at length vanquished, and their name extinguished. They were not yet stamped out, however, when a secret association, the members of which adopted the distinctive white garments of the Carmathites in their assemblies, was formed at Cairo for the propagation of the same tenets. According to the accounts pre- served by Macrisi, aspirants were in these assemblies conducted through nine degrees of mental illumina- tion, the latter of which remind us in some degree of the revelations made to the initiated in the mysteries of Eleusis. In the first degree they were perplexed by captious questions, which seemed designed to ex- pose the absurdities of the Koran, when literally understood, and to prepare the mind for interpreta- tions more consonant with reason. They were then required to bind themselves to the Society by a solemn oath of obedience and secrecy, after which the recog- B 2 INTRODUCTION. lition of the Imaums appointed by God as the sources f all knowledge was inculcated. To students of the third degree the number of the maums — the mystic seven — was revealed. In the ourth they were taught that God had sent seven law- ;ivers to man, the mission of each being to improve he system of his predecessor, and adapt it to the Itered conditions of society ; and that each of these ;ad seven helpers, who had appeared in the intervals letween the eras of the lawgivers. The seven ivinely-commissioned legislators were Adam, Noah, Lbraham, Moses, Jesus, Mahomed, and Ismael, the on of Jaaffer; the seven helpers were Seth, Shem, shmael, Aaron, Simon, Ali, and Mahomed, the son f Ismael. Von Hammer observes that, as the last- amed personage had not been dead more than a entury, the teacher was enabled to fix upon whom e would as the prophet to be believed in and obeyed y all who had not got beyond this degree. Students 1 the fifth degree were taught that each of the elpers had twelve apostles to assist him, and the ppropriateness of that number was shown by mystical nalogy. The sixth degree carried the illumination of the spirants a step further. They were now taught hat nothing in the Koran was positive that was un- iipported by philosophy, and a long course of in- truction in the systems of Plato and Aristotle was one through. In the seventh degree instruction was iven in the mystic pantheism of the Soofees. There rould seem to have been no need to carry the incul- ation of subversive doctrines further than this ; and he system of Abdallah is said, indeed, to have been INTBOBUOTION. comprised in seven degrees. But Macrisi affirms that there was an eighth degree, in which the initiated were told that prophets and teachers were nothing, and heaven and hell an idle dream ; and a ninth, still more superfluous, which taught that nothing was to be believed, and that everything might be done. De Sacy* was of opinion, however, that the Arabic words taieel and ihahat will not bear the construction put on them by Macrisi and Von Hammer. The former, he says, signifies only that Grod is a merely speculative being ; and the latter, emancipation from the injunctions concerning prayer, fasting, &c., but not from moral obligations. It is unnecessary to the pi'esent purpose that the history of the remarkable Society that arose from these beginnings should be related, even in a merely cursory manner. It is sufficient to say of the Societj'' at Cairo that the initiated multiplied rapidly, and in 1058 were strong enough to seize Bagdad, and hold it for more than a year. From that time, however, it declined, and in 1123 it was forcibly suppressed. In the meantime, however, Hassan Sabah had orga- nised a similar society in Syria, rejecting the last two , degrees of the Ismaelite Society at Cairo, and institut- ing an Order of Fedavee (devoted), the members of which do not appear to have participated in the mystic pantheism of the higher order of the initiated, but to have remained subject to the positive precepts of the Koran. To these was assigned the task of murdering those who were denounced to them by their chief; and hence the name of Assassins, by which the initiated * Journal des Savants, 1818. INTBOBUGTION. ecame known in Europe, tliough in Asia they were ailed Oriental Ismaelites, to distinguish them from bose of Egypt. Hassan Sabah captured by stratagem the strong )rtress of Alamoot, in the north-west of Persia, in 090, and one of his lieutenants seized the fortress of loominabad soon afterwards. During one of the •equent civil wars of that period, the Order continued D seize fortress after fortress, and to extend and con- jlidate its power. In vain were anathemas ful- linated against the Assassins, and the sword of jus- Lce invoked for their extermination. Strong in their ecret organisation, they 'defied alike ecclesiastical ensures and civil processes, and the daggers of the i^edavee avenged those whom the sword of justice truck down. Against such enemies even armies were lO protection, and every ruler in Asia trembled on lis throne. Within thirty years after the capture of Alamoot by he Assassins, the Order of the Knights Templars was ounded, and between these two Orders a secret con- lexion has been alleged to have existed. Von Ham- Qer not only traced in the latter a resemblance to the ormer, but asserted that two of the knights who ormed the nucleus of the Temple Order were secretly .ffiliated to the Assassins. Absolute proof of this onnexion never has been adduced, but it must be emembered that the Assassins were a secret associa- ion, and, as the Templars undoubtedly had a similar irganisation, as well as similar aims, positive evidence 3 not to be expected. All that can be done towards he solution of an undoubted historical puzzle is to elate those points in the history of the two Orders INTBODUGTION. which afford grounds for the conelusion arrived at by Von Hammer.* The Order of the Temple originated with nine knights, then in Syria, who took upon them monastic vows, and engaged also to defend the Temple of Jeru- salem against the Moslems. Hugh de Payens, the founder of the Order, returned to Europe to enlist sup- port, and reappeared in Syria ten years later, at the head of three hundred knights of the noblest famihes of Europe. They wore white mantles with a red cross on the breast. It may be no more than a coincidence that the Assassins also wore white garments with a red girdle. The banner of the Templars was first un- furled in that unfortunate expedition to Damascus, in which they acted in alliance with the Assassins, and of which Von Hammer accuses Hugh de Payens of being the chief instigator. The Assassins' were at that time desirous of securing a position on the coast, and a secret treaty was concluded between Abu-al- Wefa, their agent at Damascus, and Baldwin II., King of Jerusalem, by which the former engaged to betray Damascus to the Crusaders, and the latter to place Tyre in the hands of the Assassins. The Cru- saders were to assemble secretly, and appear before Damascus on a Friday, when the Emir and his offiicers ■ would be at prayers in the mosque. The treachery of Abu-al-Wefa was opportunely discovered, however, and the Emir, having put to death both his vizier (who was in the plot) and the Ismaelite agent, and massacred all the Assassins in Damascus, to the number of six thousand, saUied from the city, attacked » Fundgruben der Orient. INTBODUOTION. he Crusaders, and completely routed them. In con- equence of this defeat, the Ismaeiite governor of the Castle of Banias placed it in the hands of the Crusaders, a order to avail of the protection of the latter, and hus escape the fate of his brethren in Damascus. That the Templars and the Assassins more than ince co-operated, and that the former pursaed their ecret purpose with as little regard for Christians as lioslems, is undeniable. The raising of the siege of Damascus by the Crusaders has been attributed to he treachery of the Templars, and at the siege of Vscalon, which also miscarried through the opposition if the latter to the other forces engaged in it, the Templars actually held the breach against the Chris- ians, in order to monopolise the spoil. Two years ater, when the Ismaeiite Khalif of Egypt was lain by his vizier, and the latter was flying across he desert from the vengeance of the people, a )ody of Templars attacked and routed his escort near Lscalon, slew him, seized his treasure, and sold his on to the family of the murdered Khalif for sixty housand pieces of gold, though he had expressed a lesire to become a Christian, and tortures and death Lwaited him in Egypt. During the Grand Mastership of Philip of Naploos, he Templars again evinced their sympathy with the Egyptian Khalifate by protesting against the expedi- lion against it of Almeric, King of Jerusalem, and efusing to take part in itj and in 1167, when Almeric entrusted to them the defence of a strong )Osition on the Jordan, they capitulated to the Moslems, though the king was hastening to their ■elief. This treachery — for we cannot suppose it INTBODUOTION. cowardice — led Von Hammer to the conclusion that the annual tribute which the Assassins paid to the Templars at this period was really secret service money applied to the reward of the latter Order for their assistance on this and other occasions. The power and influence of the Assassins reached their zenith at the beginning of the thirteenth century, when the Christian power in the East was waning fast; and it is just at this time that we find the struggle commencing between the Templars, who now had preceptories and estates in every European country, and the princes of the West. In 1208, Pope Innocent III. passed a public censure on the Order, in an epistle to the Master, in which he said that, though they bore the Cross on their breasts, they cared not to follow Christian doctrine ; and that they admitted to the Order scoundrels of every degree, who, when they died, received honourable burial in their cemeteries, though they might be under eccle- siastical interdict for adultery and other offences. The Papal censure was disregarded by the Templars, and, though they professed obedience to the Pope's legate in 1219, when he headed the expedition against Da- mietta, it was really they who directed the legate. When the Emperor Frederic II. undertook a crusade into Egypt, they exerted all their influence to render it a failure, and even betrayed his plans to the Egyp- tian Sultan. The Emperor revenged himself upon the Order by seizing all their estates in Italy and Sicily, and the Templars retaliated by dispossessing the Teu- tonic knights of their possessions in Syria. About this time the Templars entered into an alli- ance with the Emir of Damascus against the Hospi- INTBOBTJCTION. allers, and in 1259 a battle was fought between tlie wo Orders, in which the former were completely outed. They seem at this time to have been medi- ating a final retreat from Sj^ria, where the Turks vere bearing down all opposition ; and, after the terming of Acre, the last stronghold of the Chris- ians in Syria, they carried the design into execution. But in Europe they were already in odium, with the irinces because the Order menaced their absolute )ower, with the clergy on account of their indepen- ience and their suspected heresies, with the masses or their licentiousness. Their opposition to the pro- losifcion of Pope Clement V. for a new crusade, and heir amalgamation with the Hospitallers, swelled the torra that was rising against them. Charges were aade against them, that they were a secret society ; hat they repudiated and reviled the doctrines of vhristianity ; that they held the heresy of the irnostics, and contemned the authority of the Church ; bat their lives were licentious and abominable, thereupon all the Templars in France were arrested, nd all the property of the Order in that country was onfiscated by anticipation. The same course was aken shortly afterwards in almost every country vhere they had preceptories. The depositions that were taken in the course of he proceedings that were followed hj the suppres- ion of the Order are far from satisfactory. The arti- les of accusation were absurd and contradictory. The onfession attributed to Molay, the last Grand Master, ras disowned by him ; and though the Bull of Cle- nent V., in which it was cited, is dated August 12th, .309, the confession is said to have been made on the INTBODUOTIOK 11 festival of the Assumption, which was four days later !* The confessions of the knights were extracted by torture, and many of them retracted. Of the charge of being connected with the Assassins, nothing was said ; for the power of that Order had been crushed, in Persia by the Mongol Khans, and in Syria by the Mameluke Sultan of Egypt, Beibars; and Europe had nothing to fear from it. The charges that were made were supported by evidence that would not be considered sufficient for conviction by any modern jury ; and even Clement V. acknowledged that it amounted only to suspicion. Wilcke, though he acquits the Templars of being an offshoot of the Assassins, regards them as a secret Order, and believes that they held the mystic doc- trines of the Gnostics. Opinion seems to be evenly balanced upon the point of secrecy, but their history affords abundant evidence that, whether or not they were bound to secrecy by an oath, they had secret aims, to which they were moved by springs of action unknown to the outer world. They manifested upon several occasions contempt for the authority and for the rites of the Church, and a general indifference to religion ; and there is evidence enough of their trans- actions with the Assassins, and their alliances at a later period with Moslem princes, to show that their aim was less the defence of Christianity than the advancement and glorification of their own Order. Like the Assassins, they aimed at independent power, at the erection of a State within a State, and they seemed to have failed to achieve their purpose only * Henry, Hist. Eccles., lib. xoi. INTBOVUOTION. lecause their schemes were too vast, and their forces 00 much diffused for their accomplishment. The evidence of the descent of the Masonic Order rom the Templars is vague and misty. The claim i^as first advanced in 1740 by Andrew Eamsay,* a Scotchman domiciled in Trance, and an adherent of he Chevalier St. Greorge. There has always been herished by the Freemasons some tradition assign- ng to their Order extreme antiquity, one of these larrying back the date of its origin to the building of Solomon's Temple; and Eamsay, without adducing any vidence in support of the hypothesis, suggested that he Order originated at the time of the Crusades. The dea assumed a tangible form in the higher degrees of iiasonry which were founded by Eamsay, and thus eceived the encouragement necessary for its develop- aent. "We next meet with it in what is known as he Swedish system of Masonry, described by Findel ,s a mixture of the Masonic, Eosicrucian, and ^'emplar systems, and the foundation of which is .ttributed to Grustavus III., who is said to have been .ctuated .in its introduction and dissemination by )olitical motives. Most, if not all, secret societies have a discourse on heir origin and objects which is read or orally de- ivered to members on their initiation, or prefixed to heir printed rules ; and this applies to such Orders as he Freemasons and the Foresters, as well as to lolitical societies, like the Illuminati and the Car- lonari. That of the Swedish system of Masonry ets forth that there have been, from the beginning of * Mndel's History of Freemasonry. INTROBUGTION. 13 the world, men who have worshipped the one God in spirit and truth, and preserved that esoteric doctrine as a mystery, handed down from one generation to another. In the time of the Crusades, seven Syriac Christians, who had inherited that truth from the Essenes, Hying from the Saracens, were rescued near Bastrum by a troop of Templars, and received pro- tection from the Order. At their own request they were allowed to reside with the chaplains of the Order at Jerusalem, amongst whom they were afterwards admitted, and to whom they imparted their secrets. These remained with the Templars ever afterwards, the existence of the priestly members of the Order not being affected by its suppression, as they could not be reached by the secular arm. Some of them proceeded to Scotland, and founded a chapter of the Order at Aberdeen, of which Peter of Bologna was the first prior. From thence the revived Order was extended to the European Continent, where it existed in several countries in secret until it was merged in the Masonic Order. When the Masonic convention was held at Wil- helmsbad, in 1781, Ditfurth, the delegate of the Wetzlar lodges, pronounced the evidence of the deri- vation of the Order from the Templars perfectly satis- factory ; and, after much discussion, it was resolved : — "That the connexion with the Order of the Temple was maintained by means of historical in- struction, imparted in a special class of the Order, which at the same time was charged with the regula- tion of the inferior degrees, and had the name of Beneficent Knights bestowed on them ; and that all Prefects and Provincials had it entirely at their own INTRODUCTION. liscretion, sliould special circumstances demand it, and f it could be done without prejudice to the whole ionfederation, to leave this degree entirely on one side, md make no use of it at all." The tradition of the perj)etuation of Templarisra in he Masonic Order has been repeated in various forms, 1,11 agreeing, however, in the statement tliat a remnant )f the Temple Order found a refuge in Scotland. One version is that seven knights eluded the persecution )f the Order, and escaped to the isle of Mull, where hey found another of the brethren, named Harris. rhese formed the nucleus of the revived Order, the nembers of which worked as masons ; but the story loes not make it clear whether they communicated heir secrets to their fellow-craftsmen, and thus )riginated the Masonic Order, or grafted them upon I secret system already existing. The early history )f Masonry is so misty and dim that the separation »f the facts from the fictions in which they are em- )edded is not only a very difficult task, but one that jannot be performed with a perfectly satisfactory esult. Wilcke relates the story more in detail, but only or the purpose of demolishing it. As it is thus told, Peter of Bologna, the chief chaplain of the Temple )rder, escaped from prison, and found refuge with lugh, Wildgrave of Salm, who was a Commander of he Order. This asylum being insecure, he fled to Scotland, accompanied bj^ Silvester of Grumbach, and bund there Harris, a Grand Commander, and Auuiont ;he Marshal of the Order. These four committed the secrets of Templarism to the Freemasons. Ao-ainst ;he credibility of this story it is urged by Wilcke that INTBOBUGTION. 15 nothing is known concerning the movements of Peter of Bologna after his escape from prison ; that tradition has made two knights of one — namely. Comes Silvester, Wildgrave of the Commandery of Grumbach; that Hugh of Salm, Wildgrave and Commander of Grrum- bach, died a prebend of the Cathedral of Mentz ; that the names of Harris and Aumont do not occur in any authenticated history of the Templars ; and that the last Marshal of the Order, whose name is unknown, was left by Molay in Cyprus, where the Order was not disturbed. These objections do not effectually dispose of the story. We must expect to find discrepancies and im- perfections in relations of the kind, however solid may be the foundation upon which the tradition has been built up. That Peter of Bologna did escape from prison is admitted ; the fact that nothing is well attested concerning his subsequent movements does not prove that he did not find a refuge in Scotland. The mystery in which his after life is enveloped may just as fairly be urged in support of the tradition, since, as it is not known where he found a refuge, it is as reasonable to assume that he went to Scotland as that he did not. On the same principle, the fact that the names of Harris and Aumont are unknown must not be regarded as a proof that they were not on the roll of the Temple Order at the time of its sup- pression. About eight hundred names are mentioned in the records of the judicial proceedings against the Templars, and the greatness of the number has been regarded by Masonic authors who reject the tradition as evidence of the non-existence of Harris and Aumont; but it would be just as fair, in view of the many INTRODUCTION. ihoiisands whom the Temple Order numbered in its •anks, to argue that, because certain names are not on ;he muster-roll of the Gruards, there are no soldiers of ;hose names in the British army. Neither, as it seems to me, should the tradition of he perpetuation of the Temple Order in Freemasonry )e discredited on the ground of there being a secret )rder of Templars, whose chief seat is in Paris, and vhose preceptories exist in many towns of France and ither countries, including England, claiming to have )reserved the statutes, archives, and banners of the )rder, and to have had an unbroken series of Grand Piasters from the time of Molay. It must be borne n mind, that the knights remained as individuals vhen they were suppressed as an Order, and that, hough many of them were received into other Orders in the same footing as they had stood in that of the Cemple, a considerable number were refused this avour, or declined to avail of it. Some of these may lave formed the nucleus of the secretly continued and mauthorised Order, the Grand Mastership of which is aid to have been held by Bertrand du Guesclia, and everal of the Montmorencies and Bourbons ; while ithers, who did not consider themselves safe in France, aay have sought refuge in such remote corners or\ Europe as the island of Mull. According to the "Manuel des Templiers," Molay, ast before his execution, nominated as his successor ne Larmenius, who mustered the scattered members f the Order, and secretly reorganised them. Finding hat the refugees in Scotland had deviated from he rules of the Order — which may be understood as pplying to their proceedings in connexion with the INTBODUGTION. 17 Freemasons — h.e excommunicated them. In 1324 he committed the office of Grand Master to Francois Thomas Alexandrinus hy deed, and this docutaient has been the subject of much controversy. It is written in three columns, on a large sheet of parch- ment, and, according to Gregoire,* has the appearance of such extreme antiquity that there can be no doubt of its genuineness. Wilcke says, on the other hand, that the Latin is not that of the fourteenth century, and that such an appointment would have been con- trary to the Temple rules. The former objection is entitled to more weight than the latter ; for, though the deed is undoubtedly at variance with the statutes of the Order, the illegality, or rather irregularity, is no more proof that the document is a forgery than the absence of attesting signatures to a will would be a proof that the testament was a forgery. It must equally be admitted that the alleged nomi- nation of Larmenius by Molay would have been invalid ; but some allowance may be made for the difficulties of the situation, which would account for some other circumstances which have been regarded as evidence of the fraudulent character of the claim which the modern Templars have advanced. It is obvious that an election according to the statutes of the Order was impracticable, and, though the execution of Molay's will has been considered equally so, the manner in which despatches have been conveyed in our own time — in India during the revolt of 1857, for instance— may be referred to as one only of many modes in which similar difficulties have been over- * Histoire des Sectes Eeligeuses. VOL. I. C 18 INTBODUOTION. come. The objection that the name of Larmenius is unknown is stronger than in the cases of Harris and Aumont, because the names recorded in the proces- verhaux may be supposed to include those of all the most notable of the French Templars ; but Larmenius may not have been a Frenchman, or he may have been selected for the very reason that he was beyond the reach of the prosecution. Very little weight seems to me to attach to the objection that the adherents of Hugo of Peyraud, grand prior to the Order in France, were very nume- rous, and would not have acquiesced in the nomination of Larmenius by Molay. Hugo was suspected of having precipitated the downfall of the Order by disclosures concerning it, to which he was impelled by disappointed ambition ; and it may readily be conceived that he did not acquiesce in Molay's choice of a successor, and also that Larmenius did not succeed in rallying around him all the knights who were not received into other Orders. The story only requires us to believe that the Order continued to exist in secret after the execution of Molay. It is a much more serious objection that the roU of the grand masters from Molay to the present time bears suspicious marks of forgery. The signatures before Brissac's in the eighteenth century appear to have been written by the same hand, and they include one pur- porting to be that of Bertrand du GuescUn, who could not write. The difiBculties which surround the investigatioa of the origin and history of the secret societies of the last hundred years are so much greater in respect of those which claim to date from the Middle Ages, when INTBODUGTION. 19 records were more liable to be lost or destroyed, that no surprise or disappointment can be felt at the absence of conclusive evidence of the connexion alleged to have existed between the Templars and the Freemasons, and between the latter and the Eosicru- cians, or Brethren of the Eosy Cross. Masonic writers of the present day repudiate the connexion, but there is abundant evidence that it was an article of faith with the Continental Masons during at least the latter half of the last century. Findel asserts that the Templars " sneaked into the Order, like the Jesuits and the lUuminati," and asks why they main- tained a separate existence for four hundred years, by the side of the Masonic Order, before they claimed kinship. The question is evidently intended to throw discredit on the alleged descent of Masonry from Templarism ; but the previous assertion weakens its force by admitting the existence of the latter sys- tems in the middle of the eighteenth century, while it ignores the important difference between the Tem- plars and the other Orders mentioned, that the latter neither claimed kinship with the Freemasons, nor were admitted to form higher degrees in that Order, as the Templars were. The separate existence of Templarism cannot be received as evidence against the connexion of the two Orders, in view of the like state of things in respect of the Freemasons and the Eosicrucians. Find e omits to explain the existence of the Eosicrucian degree in the Masonic Order; he does not tell us that the Eosicrucians sneaked into the Order. Yet the latter Order, equally with the Templars, has maintained a separate existence by the side of Freemasonry for c2 20 INTBOBUOTION. nearly four centuries. Christian Eosencreutz died in I4S4, and a periodical publication devoted to astrology and other occult lore of the like kind, and which had a brief existence about thirty years ago, stated that the Order of the Eosy Cross was not wholly extinct even then, and had many members in England, as well as on the Continent. It would seem therefore that the Freemasons of the present day repudiate the Templars only on account of the alleged affiliation, which claim has not been set up on behalf of the Eosicrucians, though Freemasonry is not generally credited with a greater antiquity than the seventeenth century, at the beginning of which the Order of the Eosy Cross first became known. The Carbonari claim descent from the Kohlen- Brenners of Germany ; but it may be regarded as certain that no Carbonaro ever knew anything more of the genealogy than the dim traditions which are known to all who have studied the under-currents of political progress. It is said that the charcoal burners of Germany formed themselves into an association for mutual assistance, and recognised each other by secret signs and pass-words. Their secrets, and the oath which bound them to each other, were called the Faith of the Kohlen-Brenners. Important services rendered, to the Order sometimes obtained admission into the society for persons of rank. The organisation must have had an early origin, for Theobald de Brie, who is said to have been one of the honorary members, died in 1066, and, being canonised, became the patron saint of the society — a circumstance which led to his adoption in the same capacity by the modern Carbonari. INTBODUGTION. 21 The association iu tlie course of time acquired more consistency, and extended its ramifications into France, Flanders, and Holland. Francis I. is said to have been initiated into its secrets when, being separated from his company in the chase, and benighted in an extensive forest, he shared the hospitality of some of its members. The French branch is alleged to have existed in the mountains of the Jura down to the close of the last century, and several members of the provincial parliaments are said to have been enrolled in it between the years 1770 and 1790. The members were called Good Cousins, as the Carbonari afterwards called each other in their lodges. Whatever may be thought of the evidence of the affiliation of the modern secret societies to those of the Middle Ages, there is no reason for doubting that the descent of the Freemasons from the Templars, and of the Carbonari from the Kohlen-Brenners, has been honestly believed by at least past generations of the modern societies. It is rarely, if ever, that more than a few of the members of a secret society are acquainted with the true date and circumstances of its origin. Hence the Freemasons, though claiming in the seventeenth century an origin for their Order among the masons employed in the building of Solomon's temple, received with avidity in the first half of the eighteenth century the suggestion of Eamsay that it dated from the time of the Crusades, and the state- ments of adherents of the Swedish system that it was a continuation of the Temple Order. It is obvious that the Masons, as a body, knew nothing at that time of the Order's origin beyond the fact that it had been grafted at an unknown period upon the guild of 23 INTRODUCTION. Masons, from which, it is equally obvious, it did not derive its rites and mysteries. Whence then were the Masonic rites and mysteries derived ? It is at least as probable that they have descended from the Templars as that they should have been instituted no longer ago than the seventeenth century, and yet nothing be known concerning their origin. Masonic writers who reject the hypothesis of descent from the Templars throw no light upon the matter ; in casting from them that theory they seem to have left themselves entirely in the dark. The vague allusions of the initiatory discourse used in the Swedish system to the Essenes are as little to be regarded as the reference to the mysteries of Eleusis in an address used by the Carbonari, or the statement in the dissertation prefixed to the rules of the A.O.F. that Forestry originated in the garden of Eden. Though the Masonic Order is, at the present day, counted among the secret forces of the European revolution only by the Pope and the Ultramontane section of the priesthood of Eome, so much of the organisation and the symbolism of the secret societies of the last hundred years has been derived from it, and it forms so important a link of the connexion between the mediseval and the modern societies of a secret character, that the foregoing considerations are strictly in place. It may be that the Freemasons of the nineteenth century have no secret doctrine, no aims which distinguish them from the Foresters and the Odd Fellows ; but this was not always the case, and I shall now proceed to show how they have served to link the Templars of the fourteenth century with the Uluminati of the eighteenth. CHAPTEE I. THE ILLUMINA.TI. AT the time when a variety of causes, the respective shares of which in producing the great European convulsion of the last century have formed the theme of hundreds of volumes, were operating towards the production of that tremendous political and social tornado, the professorship of canon law in the univer- sity of Ingolstadt, in Bavaria, was held hy Dr. Adam Weishaupt, a man possessing moral and intellectual qualities of a rare order, but who had not, in the first year of the period under review, made any mark in the world. He had been educated in a seminary of the Jesuits, and may have owed to his training by priests of that Order the abhorrence of sacerdotal in- fluence which he displayed in after life, as well as much of his skill in the organisation of societies and his aptitude in availing of the capacities of those around him for the furtherance of his aims. He quitted the seminary animated by an inveterate hostility, to the Jesuitical system, and, though he devoted himself to the study of the canon law, the influence of such works as the "Contrat Social" of Eousseau is distinctly perceptible in the tone of his letters to his friends Zwackh and Knigge. The time at which he conceived the idea of 24 THE ILLUMINATI. founding a secret Order that should be a counter- poise to the formidable organisation of Loyola cannot be fixed with any degree of precision. The date given by Eobison* as that of the institution of the lUuminati is 1775, when the founder was in his twenty-eighth year; but I am disposed to regard this as an error, as Weishaupt is said to have found his first disciples in the lodges of the Masonic Order, of which he was not a brother until two years later, when he was initiated in the Lodge Theodore of Good Counsel, held at Munich.f Findel, who denies the statement of Eobison that the first members of the lUuminati were Masons, says that "Weishaupt adapted the rites of Masonry and the rules of the Society of Jesus to the purposes with which he founded the new- Order, which he could not have done unless he had been himself initiated prior to the commencement of the work with which his name is associated. It is probable therefore that the Order of the lUuminati was not founded, or at least not definitely constituted, until two or three years later than the date assigned by Eobison. No evidence is adduced by Findel in support of his denial that the first members of the lUuminati were Masons, though the fact that Weishaupt was a brother of the latter Order renders it probable that he would seek recruits among the Masonic brethren, and it is well known that speculation on questions of reUgion and government, and the organisation of * Proofs of a Conspiracy against Government and Religion by the lUuminati and the Freemasons. London, 1798. Barruel fixes the date a year later than Robison does. t Findel's History of Freemasonry. TEB ILLTJMINATI. 25 society, were rife at that period in the Masonic lodges, though such discussions were said to be for- bidden by their rules. Findel, while contending that the Masonic Order, before the seventeenth century, was simply an organisation of the Masons' guilds, or trade unions, on some such system as that of the Foresters and Odd Fellows of the present day, acknow- ledges that it underwent a change during the last quarter of that century and the first of the eighteenth. "The most decisive agent in accomplishing the transformation of Masonry was," he says, "that in- tellectual movement known under the name of English Deism, which boldly rejected all revelation and all religious dogmas, and, under the victorious banner of reason and criticism, broke down all bar- riers in its path. Peers of the realm fought in the ranks of the Deists, as well as the simple artisan. Everything that civilisation and learning, sagacity and fertility of thought, could offer was at that time employed in the struggle for and against Deism, its chief supporters being Toland, Collins, &c., and the period when it flourished the most is exactly pointed out by the Act of Toleration, passed in the year 1689. It cannot be denied that there is to be found a certain spiritual connexion between this movement and the Fraternity of Freemasons, as it afterwards appeared." This connexion, he adds, struck him with great force in the perusal of Toland's " Pantheisticon," especially in the description of the Socratic Society, and he quotes, as proof and illustration, the opening of the liturgical form of the Order imagined by the author, as follows : — 26 THE ILLVMINATI. " Question. Have the uninitiated been removed ? " Answer. The doors are closed, and everything is in due order. " Q. Under what auspices do we open this Society? " A. Under the auspices of Philosophy. " Q. To what must this assembly, to what must all our thoughts, words, and actions be continually devoted ? "A. To the threefold aim of the wise — truth, freedom, and virtue." " This intellectual revolution," Tindel adds, " must necessarily have exercised an important influence on the Fraternity of Masons, and we cannot doubt that it contributed essentially to its final transformation from an operative to an universal speculative Society." I quote Findel on this point in preference to express- ing any opinion of my own, because he is himself a brother of the Masonic Order, and regarded as an authority of the highest order on all matters con- cerning it. Let us now see what was the condition of the Order at the time of Weishaupt's initiation, first glancing at a society whose operations explain the allusion in Findel's assertion that the Templars "sneaked into the Order, like the Jesuits and the Illuminati." An attempt was made during the second quarter of the eighteenth century to graft upon the Masonic Order the rites and mysteries of the Gormogones, said to have been brought from China, and to have been practised in that country for centuries. Very little information concerning this society is accessible. It is said to have been introduced into England by a Chinese mandarin, who was suspected of being a TEE ILLUMINATI. 27 Jesuit missionary ; but it is not known whether the supreme chapter of the Order had its seat in Paris or in Eome. Masonic authors, though they have very little to tell us concerning the Gormogones, agree in regarding it as a Jesuit enterprise. Kloss conjectures that it was an attempt of the disciples of Loyola to promote Romanism, and regain their influence in England; and Pindel surmises that Ramsay, who was an adherent of the Jacobite faction, had some- thing to do with the experiment, which was, however, a failure. The Order was dissolved in 1738, having been in existence thirteen years ; and it is a curious coincidence, if nothing more, that the first Papal bull against the Freemasons was fulminated in the same year. The Illuminati were more successful. The latter half of the last century was a period of great activity and incessant agitation in the Masonic Order. Higher degrees and new rites and ceremonies were introduced, and those which were practised in one country were unknown in another. This was especially the case on the Continent, where the English brethren of the Order were surprised and perplexed by finding in the lodges they visited degrees, doctrines, and ceremonies entirely novel and strange to them.* The Parisian Lodge, Les Amis Reunis, practised the ritual of the Philaletheans, a Masonic sect or section founded in 1773, and which excluded from its chapters even the oflBcers of the Grand Orient. At Metz there was the * Eobison.— " These societies, wtidi in England had no political bearing, because liberty there conspired openly in Parliament and the press, had a very different meaning on the Continent. They were the secret conventicles of independent thought." — Lamourtme. 28 TSB ILLUMINATI. chapter of St. Theodore, in which the revised ritual of St. Martin was used. At Montpelier there was the chapter of the Eosy Cross. From the Pyrenees to the Oder, Masons of rank and means travelled from lodge to lodge to learn new doctrines ; and every schemer and charlatan, a Ramsay or a Balsamo, who professed to teach a mystery or doctrine till then un- known, was received with honour and listened to with avidity. This ferment of ideas was a suitable preparation of men's minds for the enterprise contemplated by the Ingolstadt professor of canon law. He found able and earnest coadjutors in a Bavarian advocate, named Zwackh, who was a brother of the Masonic Order, and an Italian noble, the Marquis of Costanza ; and pro- ceeded to propagate his system in the Masonic lodges of Munich and Augsburg. Objecting to the Masonic and Rosicrucian systems, in the latter of which he seems to have been initiated, that they " leave us under the dominion of political and religious preju- dices, and are as ineffectual as the soporific dose of an ordinary sermon," Weishaupt unfolded a system which he explains as follows in a work published at a later period at Eatisbon, and the introductory portion of which is said to have been the discourse read to aspirants on their admission into the Order : — " I have contrived a system which possesses every advantage. It attracts Christians of every commu- nion, gradually frees them from all religious preju- dices, cultivates the social virtues, and animates them by a great, feasible, and speedy prospect of universal happiness in a state of liberty and moral equality^ freed from the obstacles which subordination, and the TEE ILLUMINATL 29 inequalities of rank and wealth, continually throw in our way. My system is accurate and complete ; ■ my means are effectual and irresistible. Our Association works in a way that nothing can withstand, and man shall soon be free and happy. " This is the great object held out by this Associa- tion, and the means of attaining it is Illumination — enlightening the understanding by the sun of reason, which win dispel the clouds of superstition and preju- dice. The proficients in this Order are therefore justly called the Illuminated. And of all TUnmina- tion which human reason can give none is comparable to the discovery of what we are, our nature, onr obli- gations, what degree of happiness we are capable of enjoying, and what are the means of attaining it. In comparison with this, the most brilliant sciences are but amusements for the idle and luxurious. To fit man by Illumination for active virtue, to engage him to it by the strongest motives, to render the attain- ment of it easy and certain by finding employment for every talent, and by placing every talent in its proper sphere of action, so that all, without any ex- traordinary effort, and in conjunction with their ordi- nary business, shall urge forward, with united powers, the general task : — this indeed will be an employment suited to noble natures, grand in its aims, and delight- ful in their pursuit." The lofty aims proposed in this discourse fore- shadow the grand schemes of social amelioration propounded at a later period by St. Simon, Fourier, Owen, Cabet, and Weitling. It is one of the most irrational ideas ever promulgated that either Weishaupt or the social reformers by whom he was succeeded 30 TSE ILLUMINATI. were actuated by tlie motive whicli some authorSj too hastily expressing the conclusions of a shallow judg- ment, or intent only upon the vilification of opponents and the misleading of the popular mind, have attri- buted to them, of bringing about universal anarchy and demoralisation. Such an aim could exist only in the, diseased brain of a lunatic. No enthusiast of this class, however wrong-headed he may have been, how- ever far he may have overshot his mark, can be shown to have been actuated by other than the purest and most laudable motives. They longed to flood the world with light — to raise the masses of the human race from the depths of misery and degradation to the loftiest heights of happiness by the cultivation of the moral and intellectual faculties. Such aims could not be pursued or proposed a hundred years ago without exposing those who propounded and followed them to the risks of being excommunicated by the Church and prosecuted by the State. It was necessary to work as silently and invisibly as the mole. " The Association," continues Weishaupt, " must be gradual. Its first task must be to form the young members. As these multiply and advance, they become the apostles of beneficence, and the work is now on foot, and advances with a speed increasing every day. The slightest observation shows that nothing will so mnch contribute to increase the zeal of the members as secret union. We see with what keenness and zeal the frivolous business of Free- masonry is conducted by persons knit together by the secrecy of their union. It is needless to inquire into the causes of the zeal which secrecy produces. It is an universal fact, confirmed by the history of every TSU ILLVMINATI. 31 age. Let this circumstance of our Constitution, therefore, be directed to this noble purpose, and all the objections urged against it by jealous tyranny and affrighted superstition will vanish. The Order will work silently and securely ; and though the generous benefactors of the human race are thus deprived of the applause of the world, they have the noble pleasure of seeing the work prosper in their hands." It was probably for the better concealment of their operations, in the event of their correspondence falling into hands for which it was not intended, that the lUuminati adopted the Persian reckoning of time, and gave feigned names to persons and places, derived from ancient history and geography. Weishaupt assumed the name of Spartacus, Zwackh that of Cato, and Baron Knigge was called Philo. Bavaria became Achaia, and Austria, Egypt ; Munich was known as Athens, Ingolstadt as Eleusis, Vienna as Eome, and so on through all the countries and cities of Central Europe. The extent to which Illuminism borrowed from the Masonic system is shown in the following classification of degrees, as given by the best authorities : — I. Seminaries : — 1, Probationary ; 2, Novitiate ; 3, Minerval ; 4, Illuminatus minor ; 6, Magistrate. II. Ereemasonrt : — 1, Symbolic : A, Apprentice- — B, Fellow-Craftsman — C, Master; 2, Scotch: K, Illumi- natus major, or Scotch novice — B, Illuminatus dirigens, or Scotch knight. III. Mysteries : 1, Inferior : A, Presbyter, or Priest — B, Princeps, or Eegent; 2, Superior: A, Magus — B, Bex. 32 THE ILLTJMINATI. The only ostensible members of the Order were the Minervals, who were found in most of the Masonic lodges, and to whom candidates for Illumination had to make known their wishes. The Minerval to whom they applied intimated their desire to a superior, who reported it to a council. No notice was taken of the application for some time, but the candidate was kept under observation, in order that a sound judgment might be formed as to his fitness. Upon this point Weishaupt's instructions respecting the initiations were : — " Whoever does not close his ears to the lamentations of the miserable, nor his heart to gentle pity; whoever is the friend and brother of the unfortunate ; whoever has a heart capable of love and friendship; whoever is steadfast in adversity, unwearied in the carrying out of whatever has been once engaged in, undaunted in the overcoming of difficulties ; who- ever does not mock and despise the weak ; whoever ha.s a soul susceptible of conceiving great designs, desirous of rising superior to all base motives, and of distinguishing itself by deeds of benevolence; who- ever shuns idleness ; whoever considers no knowledge as unessential which he may have the opportunity of acquiring, regarding the knowledge of mankind as his chief study ; whoever, when truth and virtue are in question, is sufficiently courageous to follow the dictates of his own heart, despising the approbation of the multitude — such a one is a proper candidate." If the candidate was deemed ineligible for admission into the Order, no notice was taken of his application ; if the results of the observation were favourable, he received an invitation to a conference with a superior of the Order, who was always unknown to him, and TEE ILLUMINATI. 33 by whom he was required to read and sign the following obligation : — "I, A. B., hereby bind myself, by my honour and good name, forswearing all mental reservation, never to reveal by hint, word, writing, or in any manner whatever, even to my most trusted friend, anything that shall be said or done to me respecting my wished- for reception, and this whether my reception shall follow or not, I being previously assured that it shall contain nothing injurious to religion, the State, or to good manners. I promise that I will make no in- telligible extract from any papers which shall be shown to me, now or during my novitiate. All this I swear, as I am, and as I hope to continue, a man of honour." He was then introduced to an Illuminaius dirigens, who perhaps was known to him, and whom he was directed to regard as his instructor in the doctrines and mysteries of the Order. A register, called " The Table," was produced, in which he entered the par- ticulars of his name, age, birthplace, rank, residence, profession, and favourite studies; after which his preceptor read to him the discourse upon the nature and objects of the Order from which extracts have been given in the foregoing pages. He was then required to answer in writing the following questions : — " What advantages he hopes to derive from being a member of the Order ? What he most particularly wishes to learn ? What questions relative to the life, prospects, and duties of man, as an individual and as a citizen, he wishes to have discussed with him ? In what respects he thinks he can be of use to the Order ? VOL. I. I> 34 THE ILLUMINJTI. Who are his parents, relatives, friends, and correspon- dents? Whom he deems proper persons to be received into the Order, or whom he thinks unfit for it, with the reasons in both cases ?" When the Minerval was deemed eligible for ad- vancement to the next grade, that of Tlluminatus minor, he vras informed that the aim of the Order was " to make of the human race, without distinction of nation, condition, or profession, one good and happy family." If he assented to the desirability of this result, he was required to sign a new obligation in the following terms : — " I, A. B., protest before you, the worthy Plenipo- tentiary of the venerable Order into which I desire to be admitted, that I acknowledge my natural weakness and inability, and that I, with all my possessions, rank, honours, and titles which I hold in political society, am only a man ; I can enjoy these things only through my fellow-men, and through them also I may lose them. The approbation and consideration of my fellow-men are indispensable, and I must try to preserve them by all my talents. These I will never use to the prejudice of the universal good, but will oppose with all my might the enemies of the human race and of political society. I will embrace every opportunity of saving mankind, by cultivating my understanding and my affections, and by imparting all important knowledge, as the statutes of this Order require of me. I bind myself to perpetual silence and unshaken loyalty and submission to the Order, in the persons of my superiors ; here making a faithful and complete surrender of my private judgment, my own will, and every narrow-minded employment of THE ILLUMINATI. 35 my power and influence. I pledge myself to account the good of the Order as my own, and am ready to serve it with my fortune, my honour, and my hlood. Should I, through omission, neglect, passion, or wickedness, behave contrary to the good of the Order, I subject myself to whatever reproof or punishment my superiors shall enjoin. The friends and enemies of the Order shall be my friends and enemies, "and with respect to both I will conduct myself as directed by the Order, and am ready in every lawful way to devote myself to its increase and promotion, and therein to employ all my ability. AU this I promise and protest, without secret reservation, according to the intention of the Society which requires from me this engagement. This I do as I am, and as I hope to continue, a man of honour." A drawn sword was then pointed at the aspirant's breast, and he was threatened -with unavoidable vengeance, from which no potentate, he was warned, could defend him, if he should ever betray the Order. He was next asked — 1. What aim he wished the Order to have?' 2.. What means he would use to advance that aim? 3. Whom he wished to exclude from the Order ? 4. What topics he desired should not be discussed in it? Kobison says that the ceremony of initiation resembled that of the Chevaliers du Soleil, "known to every one much conversant in Masonry;" but I believe that this degree is not so generally known as he assumed it to be. The next stage of instruction was designed equally to inculcate veneration for the superiors of the Order, and excite desire for advancement to the higher degrees. The superiors were described as men who d2 36 THE ILLUMINATL had great opportunities for observation of the moral world, and whose habit of constantly occupying their minds with the great objects of the Order had en- larged their views far beyond the narrow limits of nations and kingdoms, which would one day coalesce into one great Society, in which the consideration given in the old world to rank and wealth would attach only to worth and talent. As the initiated advanced in the Order they would become acquainted with these great and good men, and share with them the grand work of illuminating the world. To whet their zeal, they were introduced to two or three of the superior members and several of their own grade, and made instructors of some Minervals, upon whose progress and conduct they were required to report to their superiors. Thus far the progress of the TUuminati may be traced from the works published by Weishaupt in vindication of the Order, and from the evidence taken when an investigation into its nature and objects was instituted by the Elector of Bavaria. No information was given by Weishaupt concerning tbe higher degrees, and the witnesses summoned by the Elector were not in a position to make any satisfactory state- ment on the subject. Some information concerning them may be gleaned, however, from the correspon- dence and documents seized on the suppression of the Order, and from the account subsequently published by Baron Knigge. Among the papers was a discourse which Eobison says was delivered on reception into the degree of priest or presbyter, but which, according to the official account, was used in the reception of an Illmdnatus ciirigens. In the critical narrative appended THE ILLUMINATI. 37 to one portion of the published papers and letters* differences are pointed out between the two discourses, or rather between the two forms in which it was used, for it seems to have been used, with variations, for both occasions. Kings are described in this dis- course as united by a tacit convention to keep the nations in subjection to their will, nobles as the retainers of despotism, patriotism as a narrow-minded prejudice. A sufficient idea of its general purport may be gleaned from the following extract : — ■ " Men originally led a patriarchal life, in which eveiy father of a family was the sole lord of his house and his property, while he himself possessed general freedom and equality. But they suffered themselves to be oppressed — gave themselves up to civil societies, and formed States. By this they fell ; and this is the fall of man, by which they were thrust into unspeak- able misery. To get out of this state, to be freed and born again, there is no other means than the use of pure Eeason, by which a general morality may be established which will put man into, a condition to govern himself, regain his original worth, and dispense with all political supports, and particularly with rulers. This can be done in no other way but by secret associations, which will by degrees, and in silence, possess themselves of the government of the States, and make use of those means for this purpose which the wicked use for attaining their base ends. Princes and Priests are in particular, and /cor' e^oj^riv, the wicked, whose hands we must tie up by means of * Neueste Ai-beitung der Spartaous und Philov 38 THE ILLVMINATI. these associations, if we cannot root them out alto- gether." Questions in politics and ethics were required to be answered in writing, and, the replies being satisfac- tory, the candidate put on a tunic of white linen, with a girdle of crimson silk, and was received into the priestly degree with ceremonies in which crowns and sceptres were treated as symbols of degradation. The white tunic and the crimson girdle recall the Assassins of the East, from whom the idea may have been derived. Candidates for the degree of regent were required to be perfectly independent of the ruling powers, and only those Illuminated priests or presbyters v/ho were known to be dissatisfied with the political institutions of the country, and desirous of reforming them, were advanced to that grade. The candidate for this de- gree was introduced in the garb of a slave, and bound with chains, and was not admitted until, on being told by a voice from within that only free men could enter, his conductors answered for him that his will was to be free, that he had been illuminated, and fled from those who had enslaved him to seek a refuge among the free. More questions relating to government and society had to be answered in writing, and then a human skeleton was revealed, with a crown and a sword laid at its feet. The candidate was asked whisther this grim relic of humanity had been a noble or a peasant ; and, on his expressing his inability to determine the point, was told that the quality of man- hood was the only one that was important. The two highest degrees were conferred only by Weishaupt, and the discourses delivered on those oc- TSE ILLUMINATI. 39 casions have not been printed. According to the account given in the appendix to the papers and cor- respondence seized by the Bavarian authorities on the suppression of the Order, but which cannot be re- garded as a trustworthy authority on the subject, " the doctrines delivered in the degree of Magus or Philosophus are the same with those of Spinoza ; where all is material, Grod and the world are the same thing, and all religion is without foundation, and the contrivance of ambitious men." The degree of Rex, according to the same doubtful authority, taught " that every peasant, citizen, and householder is a sovereign, as in the patriarchal state, and that nations must be brought back to that state by whatever means are conducible ; peaceably, if it can be done so ; but, if not, then by force — for all subordination must vanish from the face of the earth." Such was the system which Weishaupt built upon the Masonic foundation, and strengthened, as he thought, with as much of Jesuitic precept and prac- tice as could be made subservient to his purpose. The constitution of the Order has afforded a model for the numerous secret societies by which it has been succeeded. The head of the Order was styled the general, as in the Society of Jesus. He was to be elected by the Areopagus from among themselves, and was known only to that body, with which he was in constant communication and correspondence, and to the secretaries and confidential agents whom he em- ployed in the transaction of the business of the Order. The Areopagus was a council of twelve leading mem- bers of the Order, who received reports from the national directors, and digested them for the general. 40 THE ILLUMINATI. There was a national director for each State in which the Order obtained a footing, each presiding, like the general, over a council of twelve. Subordinate to the national directors were the provincials, who had also their councils of twelve, selected from the regents of the province ; and the organisation was completed by the prefects, of whom there was one over every group of eight lodges. These were also chosen from the regents, and reported to the provincial councils. The new Order progressed slowly at first, and was unknown beyond Bavaria until 1780, when the Mar- quis of Costanza made the tour of Northern Grermany, visiting all the Masonic lodges for the purpose of in- troducing it. In the course of his travels he became acquainted with Baron Knigge, who had long been a brother of the Masonic Order, in which he was initi- ated at Cassel, but regarded it as a system of " absurd juggling tricks," and was meditating innovations in it when he became acquainted with Costanza. The latter was soon convinced that Knigge would prove a valuable member of the Order, and, having initiated him, reported of him to Weishaupt so favourably that a correspondence was originated between the Ingol- stadt professor and the Hessian baron, and tended greatly to increase Knigge's zeal and enthusiasm. These qualities, combined with the influence which he derived from his social position, made Knigge a valuable co-worker with Costanza, and during 1781 the. initiations multiplied rapidly. The new Minervals were men of good repute for learning and probity ; and as. each initiation widened the circle of the Order's influence, applications for admission were made by THE ILLUMINATI. 41 hundreds from all parts of the Saxon and Rhenish circles. In the autumn of 1781 Knigge made a journey- through Bavaria, making the acquaintance of the superior members of the Order as he went, and had a conference with Weishaupt, in which it was arranged that he should use all his opportunities and influence to procure the ascendancy of lUuminism in the Masonic lodges. A great opportunity was aSbrded shortly afterwards by the Masonic convention at Wilhelmsbad, in which Knigge had a seat. So eager were the Freemasons of that period for nevv rites and doctrines that the majority of the delegates wished to be initiated into the secrets of lUuminism, which they regarded as a higher development of Masonry. Many of them were deterred, however, by finding that Knigge had no credentials from any high Masonic authority, and knowing that knavish pre- tenders to higher mysteries had been among them before; and the initiations were far less numerous than the applications. Among the delegates whom Knigge succeeded in attracting within the influence of lUuminism, how- ever, was Bode, the translator of the English humorists, and the representative in the convention of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha. Bode was a man of the most upright character, high social position, and cul- tivated understanding, an earnest seeker after truth, and an uncompromising enemy of sacerdotalism and superstition. He had to be convinced that lUu- minism was free from "priestcraft, or any idiotic iafluence of that kind," before he would connect 42 THE ILLVMINATL himself with it; but once convinced that the new- Order aimed at overthrowing priestcraft, and was antagonistic to the Jesuits, who were the objects of his special aversion, he advanced zealously to the degree of Illuminatus dirigens, imparted to Knigge all that he knew concerning the Freemasons and . the Eosicrucians, and exerted himself to obtain recruits "for the lUuminati in the Masonic lodges. But while Knigge and Bode were working earnestly and successfully in extending the strength and in- fluence of the Order in the countries north of the Maine, a cloud was gathering over the movement in Bavaria. The system was not complete when EJiigge was introduced to Weishaupt, and its elaboration was entrusted to the former, and in this arrangement the seeds of dissension were sown. Weishaupt made alterations and additions in the rules, &c., without consulting Knigge, and though it was reasonable that he, as the founder of the Order, should have a veto in such matters, the manner in which it was exercised irritated his colleague, and the divergence of their views concerning the ritual and government of the Order which the controversy disclosed led to Knigge's withdrawal. This secession, though it hindered for a time the progress of lUuminism, was a less serious drawback than the result of the adaptation of the Jesuitic system to the purposes of a society aiming at mental illumination and a social democracy. The paternal system of government proved as unworkable in lUuminism as it was found to be in the Eational Society founded by Owen; and the perpetual espionage to which the members were subjected, and the account which they were required to reu'^^i- THE ILLUMINATI. 43 periodically of their moral and intellectual progress, engendered distrust on one side and hypocrisy on the other.* These evils would have brought about the disrup- tion of the Order sooner or later, even if it had not been exposed to attacks from without. But, from some cause or other, the existence of the Order was suspected by the Jesuits, and they immediately exerted themselves to discover it. Information was given to the Elector of Bavaria that designs inimical to religion and government were forming in the Masonic lodges, with which he immediately com- municated, reminding the brethren that the discus- sion of religious and political questions was forbidden by the statutes of the Order, and informing them that if this had not been the case, he would not have allowed them to establish themselves in his dominions. The Freemasons protesting their inno- cence of the designs imputed to them, while fresh rumours to the contrary reached the Elector, a judi- cial inquiry was ordered ; but the results were so imperfect and unsatisfactory as to leave the matter nearly as it was found. The lUuminati were sup- posed by the commissioners of the Elector to be a higher degree of the Masonic Order, but no lUu- minati could be found, and the Masons protested that they knew no such degree. Some of them had heard of persons called Minervals, but whether these were connected with the unknown lUuminati they knew not. * There is evidence of these practices ia the published corre- spondence of Weishaupt and Zwackh. 44 TEE ILLUMINATI. Some of the Minervals, who were indicated by their Masonic brethren, were privately examined by the Elector, but they revealed none of the secrets of the Order, and assured him that its aim was in the highest degree praiseworthy. Eumours of the exis- tence of a secret society that was one day to rule the world continued to reach the Elector, however, and, perplexity giving way to alarm, he issued an edict forbidding the holding of Masonic lodges throughout his dominions. The Munich lodge, Theodore of Good Counsel, continued to meet, however, and its members openly reprobated the decree as absurd and unjustifiable. The Jesuits made an attack in their own way. Two or three of them contrived to obtain admission into the Order, in which they distinguished them- selves by their seeming inveterate hostility to the Society of Jesus, and, when they had learned enough for their purpose, revealed the existence of lUuminism to the Elector. In 1788 the commissioners of the Elector summoned before them, on information sworn by Canon Danzer, Professor Westenrieder, and a book- seller named Strobl, four professors of the Marianen Academy, named Utschneider, Cossandey, Eenner, and Grunberger, who had been initiated several years previously, but had withdrawn from the Order, and manifested personal rancour against several of their late associates. They were not unwilling witnesses, therefore, and they told all that they knew concerning the constitution and principles of the Order, admitting, however, that there was much of which they were ignorant, none of them having advanced beyond the degree of Magistrate, and two being only Minervals. TEE ILLUMINATI. 45 Their statements that the Order abjured religion, country, and property, and that addresses were delivered in the lodges on liberty and equality as the inalienable rights of mankind, made a profound im- pression on the mind of the Elector, and he privately examined a young Bavarian noble who was an Illu- nant of superior grade, in the hope of eliciting some further information concerning a society that seemed so dangerous, and whose operations were veiled in so much mystery. The witness maintained, however, that the objects of the Order had been misrepresented, and expressed his conviction that there would be no objection to submit its constitution and statutes to the Elector. The measures thereupon directed against the lUu- minati were not taken with much judgment. The authorities first published the evidence of the four professors of the Marianen Academy, some of which the lUuminati declared to be false, and the rest inac- curate or perverted representations of the truth. Then the Elector issued an edict against all secret societies, followed by another expressly suppressing the Illuminati ; and, having thus placed the Order on its guard, he next directed a search to be made for its papers. Of course none were found. The Illuminati said that they had been burned, the suppression of the Order having rendered them useless; but it is more probable that the failure to discover them was the result of the very simple cause, that they were not sought for in the right places. Subsequently the house of the advocate Zwackh was searched, and letters and documents were found which revealed the authors and directors of the mysterious THE ILLUMINATI. system which caused so much anxiety and alarm. Weishaupt, being found to be the head and founder of the Order, was deprived of his professorship and banished from the Elector's dominions. He was offered a pension of eight hundred florins, but refused to accept it, and removed only to Eatisbon, which, being a free city of the empire, was not within the jurisdiction of the Bavarian electorate. The Marquis of Costanza and another Italian, Count Saviola, were also banished, with pensions of the amount offered to "Weishaupt, which they accepted. Zwackh incurred the same penalty, and found an asylum with the Prince of Salms. Canon Hertel was deprived of his benefice, and Baron Maggenhoff suffered a month's imprisonment in a monastery. These events occurred in 1785. Weishaupt removed from Eatisbon to Gotha, on the invitation of the Duke of Saxe-Grotha, who was an lUuminee as well as a brother of the Masonic Order, and whose friendship and protection he enjoyed until the duke's death.* His connexion with the Illumi- nati subsequent to his departure from Ingolstadt cannot be traced, and it has been surmised that changes in the generalship and the national and pro- vincial directorships of the Order were made imme- diately after its suppression, in order that the work might be carried on with less risk of attracting suspi- cion. The alarm which the discovery of the objects of the Order had excited in the mind of the Elector of Bavaria had communicated itself to his brother princes * Weishaupt Kved until 1830, when he was in his eighty-thii-d year, having been born in 1 748. THE ILLUMINATI. 47 of Germany, and both the Duke of Saxe-Grotha and the Dnke of Saxe- Weimar withdrew from it, though the former continued the protection and pension which he had accorded to Weishaupt, to whom, however, the duchess would never speak. According to the witnesses examined at Munich in 1783 the Order had then six hundred lodges in Bavaria, and had been extended to Austria, Saxony, Holland, and Italy ; but they admitted that they had no personal knowledge of the matter, and merely repeated the information which they had received from lUuminati whom they believed to be well- informed. The statement was imperfect, and I am disposed to consider it in some respects inaccurate. The Order appears to have been extended all over Grermany, and to have penetrated into Alsace and Lorraine, some of the delegates of those provinces to the Masonic convention at Wilhelmsbad having been initiated by Baron Knigge; and among them was Dietrich, mayor of Strasburg, who a few years later figured somewhat prominently in the sanguinary events of the French Eevolution. There are traces in the correspondence of Weishaupt with Zwackh and others of the Order having obtained a footing in Poland, and Eobison asserts that lodges of lUuminati were established in England as early as 1784 ; but it seems to have been connected with Italy and Holland only through natives of those countries who resided in Germany, and the assertion that there were English lUuminati is unsupported by evidence. So much of the statements of Eobison and Barruel* * Memoirs of the Jacobins. 48 TEE ILLUMINATl. is mere inference that they must be received with caution, and accepted only when they are supported by evidence. They were both so violently opposed, not merely to the acts of the French revolutionists, but to the principles of the revolution, that their sentiments received a shock from the discovery of Jlluminism which disposed them to see that system in whatever resembled it ; just as, amongst the pre- sent generation, there are some who see the finger of the Jesuits, others that of the Cabinet of St. Peters- burg, in every political event. Eobison persisted that Illuminism was revived, immediately after its sup- pression, under another name, and in another form, all over Germany ; and that, though again detected, and again broken up, it spread all over Europe. The evidence which he adduces in support of these asser- tions must be examined before relating the true history of the Illuminati after the suppression of the Order in Bavaria. Weishaupt is said to have observed, when he left Ingolstadt, that the rejoicing of the Court of Munich would soon be turned into sorrow ; and also that he would restore the Order with tenfold energy in twelve months. It is very probable that these menacing re- marks were really made, and the inquiry may be nar- rowed to the mode in which Weishaupt's threats were carried into execution. According to Eobison, Illu- minism was revived in an association called the Geiman Union, the history of which — or rather of the circumstances connected with its supposed detection — is as instructive as it is curious. Nicholai, the cele- brated Berlin publisher, had a profound horror and detestation of the Jesuits ; and, in the course of an TRB ILLUMINATI. 49 investigation which he made into their practices all over Germany, came into collision with Stark, famous in Masonic annals, whom he accused of being a Jesuit, and of having even submitted to the tonsure. Stark retorted by denouncing Nicholai as an lUuminant, and a paper war ensued, in the course of which the former announced that he had discovered the con- tinued existence of Illuminism in the form of a pre- tended literary society called the Grerman Union. This startling announcement was followed by the publication of a series of papers, which it was alleged had been received, partly printed and partly in manu- script, by a publisher, who professed that he did not know whence they had come. The first of the series was a prospectus of a Eeading Society ; the second a form of oath, binding those who signed it to secrecy concerning the society, which was called the German Union. It was inferred by Stark that this was sent to those who forwarded subscriptions to the promoters of the society, and that those who signed it received the third document of the series, which was headed " The Plan of the XXII. ," and began as follows : — " We have united in order to accomplish the aim of the exalted Founder of Christianity — viz., the enlightening of mankind and the dethronement of superstition and fanaticism, by means of the secret fraternisation of all who love the work of God." This, it was contended by Stark, could mean nothing less than Illuminism. The attention of the authorities and the police being given to the matter, the concoction of the German Union was traced to Dr. Bahrdt, an Illu- minant of abandoned character, whom Baron Knigge mentions, in his latest pamphlet on the lUuminist VOL. I. E 50 THE ILLVMJNATI. controversy, in terms of the utmost contempt and abhorrence. Kobison acknowledges that the Union "aimed at the entry money and annual subscriptions, and at the publication and profitable sale of Dr. Bahrdt's books ;" and in his eagerness to aiEx the stigma of everything evil upon every one connected with the Illuminati, fails to perceive that such an object could not be that of the Order to which he ascribed it. Bahrdt, on being arrested, confessed, by implication at least, that " the enlightening of man- kind," &c., was a mere pretence, and there seems no doubt that the sole object of the scheme was to prey upon the public. Unfortunately for himself, he had taken into his employment a young man named Eoper, who had been expelled from his college for immoral conduct, and subsisted by vending manu- script copies of obscene poems, until he was found by Bahrdt destitute and almost starving. This wretched fellow stole from Bahrdt the papers relating to the German Union, and took them to a priest named Schiitz, whose character was little better than his own, and who arranged them for publication, after- wards giving information to the police. But the Illuminati continued to exist, though not in the form assigned to it by Eobison. Some light is thrown upon the history of the Order after the retirement of Weishaupt to Gotha, by a communica- tion that was made thirteen years afterwards to an English magazine, that " from the beginning of 1790, every concern of the Illuminati has ceased, and no lodge of Freemasons in Germany has since that period taken the least notice of them. The proofs of this assertion are found among the papers of Mr. Boae, THE ILLUMINATI. 51 late Privy Councillor at Weimar, who was at the head of the Order in this part of Germany, and died in 1794."* The article from which this passage is quoted was written hy Boetiger, director of the Weimar Gymnasium, who was a frequent contributor to the periodical literature of the period, and who appears to have had access to Bode's papers after the latter's decease. The doubt expressed by Barruel as to the accuracy of the statement that lUuminism ceased to exist in Germany in 1790, arose from his seeing, like Eobison, Illuminism in every movement that savoured of revolution, and regarding Jacobinism as its con- tinuation. I shall presently give reasons for believing Boetiger 's statement to be correct ; but there is a point in the reference to Bode which requires prior attention. The position assigned to Bode appears to be that of National Director of Upper Saxony, in which he would have been subordinate to the Areopagus ; but he was a member of that Council two or three years before the date given by Boetiger as that at which the lUuminati ceased to exist, or, as it would perhaps .be more correct to say, to have an active existence. Was Bode, then, the successor of Weishaupt in the generalship of the Order ? The fact may have been unknown to Boetiger, but it seems more probable that Bode should have held that ofiSce than that Boetiger should have made the mistake of assigning him a lower position than that which he is known to have held in 1788. The introduction of Illuminism into Trance was * Montkly Magazine, 1798. E 2 52 THE ILLUMINATL effected at that date by Mirabeau, who, during his residence in Germany, was initiated by Mauvillon, a professor of the Caroline College, at Brunswick. Mauvillon, who had been initiated by Knigge, is said to have assisted Mirabeau in the production of the curious work on llluminism,* the object of which constituted one of the literary puzzles of the last century, the picture presented being very different from the reality. llluminism is made to appear in its pages as a compound of the Eosicrucian system and the doctrines of Swedenborg, with what object is not clear, the surmise of Barruel that it was intended to deceive the French as to the actual aims of the Illuminati not being supported by the circumstances. Why should it have been deemed necessary that the French should be deceived on this point any more than the Grermans ? The French brethren of the Masonic Order were as eager for novelties as those of Germany, and it was, in France as in Germany, upon the Masonic system that llluminism was grafted. Mirabeau rose high in the Order, and on his return to France, in September, 1788, initiated the Duke of Orleans, who was Grand Master of the Freemasons of that country, and Talleyrand. Correspondence with the Areopagus concerning the introduction of the system into France led to two members of that body, Bode and Baron Busche, the latter a lieutenant-colonel in the army of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, being deputed for that purpose. Barruel asserts that the whole of the Masonic lodges comprised in the Grand Orient, two hundred and sixty-six in number, * Essai sui- les Illuuiinees. THE ILLJJMINATI. S3 were "illuminated" by the end of March, 1789 ; and there is no doubt that, with the ground so well prepared by the works of Yoltaire and Eousseau, D'Alembert and Diderot, and with the example and influence of the Duke of Orleans, and the exertions of men such as Mirabeau, Talleyrand, Sieyes, and Con- dorcet, the system spread with rapidity. It penetrated into Switzerland about the same time, and was grafted on the Masonic lodges of Berne and Geneva, as was discovered in 1794, when some political arrests were made, and patents, as the certificates of applications were called, found among the papers of the accused. Such was the position of lUuminism within two years of the time when, according to Boetiger, it ceased to have any influence in Germany. Barruel attempts to connect the Jacobin Club with the Order, but he adduces no other evidence than the similarity of the principles of the two organisations, and the fact that Mirabeau and Sieyes were members of the Breton Committee. Such reasoning is common to the opponents of what is vaguely called la Bevolution, from the Popes who have fulminated Bulls, condemn- ing in one category Freemasonry, Jacobinism, Jan- senism, and Carbonarism, to the Abbe Defourny, who asserts that the Commune and the International were known in England in lb39, under the name of Chartism.* The truth is, that the Eevolution had, in 1790, * Address delivered at the Oercle Oatholique in 1873, and inserted in the pamphlet Les Trois Questions' Capitales : Obeissanoe, Droit des Gens, Revanche. 54 TSE ILLUMINATI. placed Prance, and, in a less degree, the neighbouring countries, in the situation which Lamartine describes as placing Freemasonry in a different position in England to that which the Order occupied on the Continent. Constitutional government and a free press leave no room for secret societies to work in ; and in 1790 France spoke so openly in the National Assembly, in the Jacobin Club, and in the columns of a score of journals, all breathing revolution, that the occupation of the liluminati was gone. " We are all Freemasons now," a jubilant revolutionist of that period is said to have remarked; and he might have substituted liluminati for Freemasons, and increased the force of the observation. The Bastille had fallen, and with it the prestige of absolute power; the people were on their feet, armed with vote and musket ; the inspiring strains of the Marseillaise Hymn filled the air. What need, then, of the liluminati ? CHAPTEE IT. THE UNITED IRISHMEN. WHILE the sun of liberty was rising in France from a blood-red horizon, and the nations around were watching its .advent with mingled hope- fulness and apprehension, a few ardent spirits among the Protestants of Ireland became inspired with the idea that, since all men love freedom, the desire to obtain it would cause Irishmen to forget the dif- ferences of race and creed among them, and unite for the furtherance of the common object. At this dis- tance of time, when the field in which those pioneers of civil and religious freedom in the sister island had to labour can be surveyed with calm deliberation, the prospect of the political harvest which they hoped to garner appears to have been far from brilliant. Social and religious discords were never more rife in Ireland, or manifested with greater fierceness and violence, than when Samuel Neilson, a Belfast draper, conceived the idea of an association which should unite Protes- tants and Catholics for the promotion of Parliamen- tary reform and Catholic emancipation. Lawless as- sociations spread over the country, and filled it with violence and terror. The Peep-of-Day Boys burned the houses and maimed the cattle of the Catholics, and the Defenders retaliated by similar outrages upon 56 TEE UNITED IltlSHMEN. the property of the Protestants. The Catholic Com- mittee, representing the aristocracy and the clergy of the old faith rather than the nation, evinced no sym- pathy with the movement for Parliamentary reform. The Grovernment looked coldly upon both, and main- tained an attitude of inaction, refraining alike from measures of amelioration and endeavours at pacifica- tion, and regarding the antagonistic bands of noc- turnal ravagers with less disapprobation than would have been shown towards a resolution of a public meeting, or an article in a newspaper, condemnatory of its policy. In the province of Ulster political feeling was more prominent than the religious strife which has since caused blood to flow in its towns on so many un- happy occasions. The Orange lodges were not then in existence. The Parliamentary reformers had be- come, in 1791, convinced that they could not conduct their agitation to a successful conclusion without a previous union of the Catholic and Protestant sec- tions of the nation, the former constituting at least two-thirds of the Irish population. Neilson, who was a member of the volunteers, from the formation of which so much had been expected, propounded this idea to two of his friends, Macracken and EusseU, the latter an officer in the army, in the beginning of Oc- tober, 1791. "Our efforts for reform," he said, "have hitherto been ineffectual, and they deserved to be so, for they have been selfish and unjust, as not includ- ing the rights of the Catholics in the claim we put forward for ourselves." EusseU suggested that they should communicate their views to his friend Tone, whose pamphlet on the claims of the Catholics had THE UNITED IRISHMEN. S7 just been published, and was attracting much atten- tion. Neilson assented, and Eussell went to Dublin to invite Tone to a conference. Theobald Wolfe Tone, who was brought promi- nently on the field of Irish politics by this invitation, was at that time a briefless barrister, in his twenty- eighth year, with a greater inclination for politics than for the law. He had before this time founded aclub which combined political discussions with con- viviality, and which, though it soon broke up, made him acquainted with the elder Emmet, whom he de- scribes as " a man completely after my own heart, of a great and comprehensive mind, of the warmest and sincerest affection for his friends, and of firm and steady adherence to his principles, to which he has sacrificed much, as I know, and would, I am sure, if necessary, sacrifice his life."* He was intimate also with Keogh, and through him became acquainted with the more liberal members of the Catholic committee. He readily accompanied Russell to Belfast, where, after three weeks' conferences and correspondence, the Association of United Irishmen was organised on the basis of the following resolutions, which were drawn up by himself: — " 1. That the weight of English influence in the government of this country is so great as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland, to maintain that balance which is essential to the preser- vation of our liberties and the extension of our com- merce. 2. That the sole constitutional mode by which this influence can be opposed is by a complete and * Memoirs of Theobald Wolfe Tone. 58 THE UNITEV IRISHMEN. radical reform of the representation of the people in Parliament. 3. That no reform is practicable, effica- cious, or just which shall not include Irishmen of every religious persuasion." Tone then returned to Dublin, with instructions to cultivate relations with prominent men of the popular party, and, if possible, to form a branch society of United Irishmen in that city. He contrived to be- come acquainted with Napper Tandy, an active agi- tator, and through him with others ; and, in a week or two, a branch society was formed, the Hon. Simon Butler being its chairman, and Napper Tandy, secretary. The resolutions of the Belfast society were unanimously adopted, and correspondence opened with the United Irishmen of the northern city. The United Irishmen of that day were not a secret society, the contrary statement of Clifford, in the note appended to his translation of Barruel's " Memoirs of the Jacobins," proceeding from his attributing the constitution of the association of 1798 to the earlier society. They were not even imbued with republican sympathies or aims. " At this time," says "Wolfe Tone, " the establish- ment of a republic was not the immediate object of my speculations. My object was to secure the inde- pendence of my country under any form of govern- ment, to which I was led by a hatred of England so deeply rooted in my nature that it was rather an in- stinct than a principle. I left to others, better quali- fied for the inquiry, the investigation and merits of -the different forms of government, and I contented myself with labouring on my own system, which was luckily in perfect coincidence as to its operation with THU UNITED IRISHMEN. 59 that of those men who viewed the question on a broader and juster scale than I did at the time I men- tion. The club was scarcely formed before I lost all pretensions to anything like influence in their mea- sures, a circumstance which at first mortified me not a little ; and perhaps, had I retained more weight in their councils, I might have prevented, as on some occasions I laboured unsuccessfully to prevent, their running into indiscretions which gave the^r enemies but too great advantages over them. It is easy to be wise after the event. So it was, however, that I soon sunk into obscurity in the club, which, however, I had the satisfaction to see daily increasing in numbers and consequence." As soon as the society was fairly in operation, the efforts of Neilson and Tone were directed to the re- conciliation of the Defenders and the Peep-of-Day Boys, and the latter made a tour through the country for that purpose, his journal of which abounds with vivid illustrations of the moral and social condition of the Irish people at that period. The endeavours of the United Irishmen to bring about the pacification of the countjy were unsuccessful, on the whole, though some good was effected here and there ; but the association rapidly grew stronger and more in- fluential, the supineness with which the Government viewed the disorders of the country, and the arbitrary and often lawless proceedings of the magistrates, causing adhesions to multiply faster than the greatest efforts of the leaders could have done. As their numbers increased their views ceased to be bounded by Catholic emancipation and Parliamentary reform. They began to think of the possibility of .60 THE UNITED IBIBEMEN. achieving the independence of Ireland, to cultivate closer relations with the Defenders, and to entertain the idea of assistance from France. The association, pervaded by a new spirit, assumed a new organisation. In the spring of 1795 it was reconstituted on a system closely resembling that of the lUuminati, and charac- terised by Harwood as " a sort of pyramidical hier- archy of sedition, with an infinite number of small local societies for the base, and gradually towering up, through the nicely fitted gradations of baronial, county, and provincial committees, to the apex of a national executive directory."* The local societies were formed by the union of twelve members living in the same street or neigh- bourhood, and one of whom was elected to the post of secretary. The secretaries of five local societies con- stituted a lower baronial committee, and delegates from ten such committees formed an upper baronial committee. Delegates from the committees of the latter class constituted the county committees, each of which returned two or three delegates to the pro- vincial committees. By and from these last five members were elected by ballot to form the national executive directory, which had the supreme and uncontrolled command of the whole body. The election was so conducted that only the secretaries of the provincial committees knew who had been elected, and the instructions of the executive were transmitted by one of the number to the secretaries of the pro- vincial committees, and thence downward through the secretai'ies of the county and baronial committees to * History of the Irisli KebeUion of 1798. TEE UNITED IRISHMEN. 61 the local societies, the whole of the proceedings being enveloped in the utmost secrecy, and presenting a remarkable combination of democracy below with absolutism at the top. Secrecy was declared to be necessary for rendering " the bond of union more cohesive and the spirit of union more ardent, to envelop the plan with ambi- guity, to facilitate its own agency, and to confound and terrify its enemies by ignorance of its design, extent, and direction." An oath of secrecy and fidelity took the place of the simple declaration formerly made by members on joining the Association, and the confession of political faith was so modified that it might be made equally by republicans and by constitutional reformers. As thus modified, the test stood as follows : — ■ " I, A. B., do voluntarily declare that I will perse- vere in endeavouring to form a brotherhood of affection among Irishmen of every religious persuasion, and that I will also persevere in my endeavours to obtain au equal, full, and adequate representation of all the people of Ireland. I do further declare that neither hopes nor fears, rewards nor punishments, shall ever induce me, directly or indirectly, to inform or give evidence against any member or members of this or similar societies for any act or expression of theirs done or made, collectively or individually, in or out of this society, in pursuance of the spirit of this obliga- tion." Clifford says that the Society assumed from the first " the secrecy and somewhat of the ceremonial of Free- masonry ;" but this is a mistake. There was no secrecy until the Society was reconstituted in 1795, 62 TEE UNITED IRISHMEN. and very little of the Masonic element at any time. He adds the rather ridiculous statement, that the members wore constantly about the neck an amulet, " containing the great principle which unites the brotherhood in letters of gold on a ribbon striped with all the original colours, enclosed in a sheath of white silk, so as to represent the pure union of the mingled rays, and the abolition of all superficial distinctions, and all colours and shades of difference, for the sake of one illustrious end." I can find no tra6e of the wearing of such an amulet in any of the memoirs which I have consulted. The only symbols in use among the United Irishmen were the Irish harp, with or without a star over it, the shamrock, and clasped hands, which appear on their seals, and ^vere, at a later period, displayed on their flags. There were no ceremonies resembling those of Freemasonry used in the initiation of members. The candidate for admis- sion into the Society was merely taken into a room apart from that in which the members were assembled, and sworn upon the New Testament. There was no grip in use, but when a member desired to test a stranger, he said, " I know D ;" to which the other, if initiated, responded, " I know N ;" and the dialogue was, if it was thought necessary, continued in that manner all through the letters composing the words United Irishmen. According to the memoir drawn up in 1798 by Arthur O'Connor, Macnevin, and the elder Emmet, it " was long before the skeleton of this organisation was filled up. While the formation of these societies was in agitation, the friends of liberty were gradually, but with a timid step, advancing towards republicanism. THE VNITEB IRISHMEN: 63 They began to be convinced that it would be as easy to obtain a revolution as reform, so obstinately was the latter resisted ; and as the conviction impressed itself on their minds they were inclined not to give up the struggle, but to extend their views. It was for this reason that in their test the words are, ' an equal representation of all the people of Ireland,' without inserting the word Parliament. This test embraced both the republicans and the reformers, and left to future circumstances to decide to which point the common strength should be directed ; but still the whole body, we are convinced, would rejoice to stop short at reform. Another consideration, how- ever, led reflecting United Irishmen to look towards a republic and separation from England. This was the war with France. They clearly perceived that their strength was not likely to become speedily equal to wresting from the English and borough interest in Ireland even a reform; foreign assistance Would, therefore, perhaps become necessary. But foreign assistance could only be hoped for in proportion as the object to which it would be applied was important to the party giving it. A reform in the Irish Parliament was no object to the French ; a separation of Ireland from England was a mighty one indeed. Thus they reasoned, — Shall we, between two objects, confine ourselves to the least valuable, even though it is equally difficult to be obtained, if we consider the relations of Ireland with the rest of Europe?" The formation of the Orange association gave a new impetus to the United Irishmen, and the afiiliations multiplied rapidly. It is evident from Tone's Journal ' that the leaders had already begun in 1795 to discuss 64 TEB UNITED IRISHMEN. the question of revolt and the French alliance ; but the first step in that direction was taken by the French Government, as the agent of which, a Pro- testant clergyman named Jackson, who had been some time resident in Paris, visited England and Ireland, in order to ascertain the views and feelings of the people. Jackson, who was far too simple for such a mission, confided his object to a solicitor named Cockayne, who, notwithstanding the long friendship between them, betrayed him to the British Govern- ment. Jackson had obtained an introduction to Tone, who, though he suspected him to be a spy of the Government, entrusted him with a paper on the state of Ireland, and the probabilities of the success of a French invasion ; and this criminatory document was found upon Jackson when he was arrested. On learning that Jackson was in pi-ison (where he committed suicide) and that this paper had been found upon him, Tone adopted a course so much to his own advantage and that of the United Irishmen that it is difiicult to understand the motives of the Government in acceding to it. Through a friend, he negotiated with the Government for his safety, stipu- lating that he should be allowed to leave Ireland, making no disclosures, and giving no pledge for the future. The assent of the Government being obtained, it was arranged between himself and the other leaders of the United Irishmen that he should proceed to Philadelphia, and there open a communication with the French Government, with a view to obtaining its assistance. On arriving in that city, he waited upon Adet, the French Minister, who gave him no definite encouragement, but desired him to draw up a memoir TEB UNITED IRISHMEN. 65 on the state of Ireland, to be submitted to the French Government. Several months had elapsed without any response, and he was preparing to settle in America, when he received letters from Russell, Keogh, and other friends in Ireland, acquainting him with the rapid progress of the Society, and urging him, in the strongest manner, to go to Paris, and endeavour to obtain a promise of material aid in support of an insurrection. He con- sulted his wife and his sister, both of whom urged him to go to Paris ; and then he visited Adet, who, having just received despatches from the Directory, entered heartily into the plan, and gave him credentials to Delacroix, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. Tone's brother returned to Ireland, conveying to the executive committee of the United Irishmen the in- telligence of what was being done, and to everybody else the announcement that he had quietly settled down as a farmer in New Jersey ; and, in the beginning of 1796, Tone himself crossed the Atlantic again, and proceeded to Paris, bearing a letter in cipher from Adet to Delacroix. He found the French Minister well disposed to entertain the proposal of an invasion of Ireland, but totally ignorant of Irish politics and the state of the country ; and General Clarke, then Minister of War, unprepared to render assistance to the requisite extent, and equally ignorant of the country of which his father was a native. Only two thousand men and twenty thousand mustets were promised, and Tone insisted that less than five thousand men would be useless. He was becoming discouraged and anxious, when Monroe, then ambassador of the United States in VOL. I. ^ 66 TE3 UNITED IBI8HMEN. Paris, advised him to obtain an audience of Carnot. The " organiser of victory" listened to him attentively, and showed by his remarks that he had thought of the matter before. He gave no definite assurance of support, however, and Tone lingered on in Paris, alternately sanguine and depressed, untU May, when Carnot informed him that an agent had been sent to Ireland to ascertain the actual state of afiairs, and report thereon to the Directory. In connexion with these negotiations, the memoir drawn up by O'Connor, Emmet, and Macnevin in 1798 shows that, in May, an important meeting of the directorate of the United Irishmen was held, " in con- sequence of a letter from one of the Society who had emigrated on account of his political opinions." Tone's Memoirs have shown who that emigrant was. At this meeting "it was contended," says the memoir, " that, even according to the constitution and example of 168S, when the protection of the constituted authorities was withdrawn from the subject, allegiance, the reciprocal duty, ceased to bind ; when the wrongs of the people were not redressed, they had a right to resist, and were free to seek for allies wherever they were to be found. The English revolutionists of 1688 called in the aid of a foreign republic to overthrow their oppressors. There had sprung up in our own time a much more mighty repubhc, which, by its offers of assistance to break the chains of slavery, had drawn on itself a war with the enemies of our freedom, and now particularly tendered us its aid. These arguments prevailed ; and it was resolved to employ the proffered assistance for the pur- pose of separation. We were aware it was suspected that negotiations between the United Irishmen and THB UNITED IBI8EMEN. 67 the French were carried on at an earlier period than that now alluded to ; but we solemnly declare that such suspicion was ill-founded. In consequence of this determination of the executive, an agent was despatched to the French Directory, who acquainted them with it, stated the dispositions of the people, and the measures which caused them." The agent referred to was Lord Edward Fitzgerald, a younger son of the Duke of Leinster, and then in his thirty-fourth year. He had entered the army when seventeen years of age, and served with distinction in America ; but retired from the profession of arms in 1790, on being told that he had barred his way to further promotion by declining to support the Grovern- ment as member for Kildare. At the period referred to in the memoir he went to Switzerland, accompanied by Arthur O'Connor, a gentleman of his own age, who had been called to the bar, but, having a large estate, had never exercised his profession. Fitzgerald and O'Connor had an interview near the French frontier with Greneral Hoche, who had been selected by the Directory for the command of the expedition which it had at length been determined to despatch to Ireland, and fully satisfied him that Tone and his views were trustworthy. At the end of June, Tone was informed that the expedition would shortly be undertaken, that Hoche would conduct it, and that he should himself have the position of general of a brigade. A regular communication had now been established between France and Ireland, and Tone received letters from the directorate of the United Irishmen, informing him that fourteen counties, including the whole of the north of Ireland, were completely organised for the r 2 THE UNITED IRISHMEN. purpose of throwing off the English yoke, and that the organisation of the remainder was rapidly advanc- ing. On the 12th of July, Tone had an interview with Hoche at the Luxembourg Palace, and was informed that the expedition would be in great force, and accompanied by a large quantity of arms, ammuni- tion, stores, and artillery, and that the general would, for the sake of his own reputation, take care that ail the arrangements should be made on a proper scale. It consisted, in fact, when it sailed from Brest on the 16th of December, of forty-three vessels, carrying fifteen thousand men, forty- one thousand muskets, twenty-nine cannon, sixty-one thousand barrels of gunpowder, and seven millions of cartridges. The British Government had got scent of the enterprise by some means, and one of the spies in Brest endea- voured to obtain from the printer a copy of the pro- clamation intended to be circulated in Ireland, in the event of a landing being effected ; but the printer gave information of the endeavour to tamper with him to Hoche, who desired him to print a special edition of a single copy, in which Portugal and Portuguese should be substituted for Ireland and Irishmen, w^herever they occurred. This was done ; and Sir John Colpoys, who had been watching the fleet in Brest harbour for some time, being deceived by this spurious proclama- tion, sailed away with the Channel fleet at the critical moment, leaving the sea open to the French expedi- tion. Bantry Bay was not originally intended to be the place of disembarkation, and its selection after the dispersion of the fleet by a storm had disconcerted THE UNITED IEI8SMEN. 69 Hoche's plans was an after-thought. The original intention has never transpired, and was said to have been known only to Hoche and O'Connor. The latter did not divulge it when under examination two years later, but he appears to have subsequently communi- cated it to other persons, having told Madden in 1842 that the secret was known to two persons then living.* Why it should have been withheld from the world when nearly half a century had elapsed since the failure of the expedition, and the United Irishmen had become a part of the past history of their country, and their secrets of no more consequence than those of the lUuminati, has not been explained, and cannot now even be conjectured. The leaders of the United Irishmen were deceived concerning Hoche's expedition as much as the British Government. A messenger arrived from France in the latter part of November, with the intelligence that their allies might be expected very shortly ; and a few days afterwards, when the messenger was on his way back to France, they received a letter from an apparently trustworthy source, informing them that the expedition had been deferred, and would not sail until the spring. This threw the directorate off their guard, and prevented measures being taken to prepare the people of the south of Ireland for the coming descent upon the coast. There is some mystery about the source of this false intelligence, unless we assume that there were reservations among the members of the Government, and that all the secrets of Downing Street were not confided to Dublin Castle ; for Emmet, * Madden's Memoirs of tlie United Irislimen. 70 TBE UNITED IRISHMEN. when under examination in 1798, was interrogated concerning the cause of the popular quietude while the French were in Bantry Bay, which seemed to have. somewhat puzzled the secret committee by which the examination of the United Irishmen was conducted. In view of the impending invasion, the organisation of the United Irishmen had received an important modification in October. It was already admirably adapted for the assembling of large bodies of men at a very brief notice, and the change which it then under- went, though significant, extended only to the nomen- clature. The local secretaries became sergeants, the lower baronial delegates were transformed into captains, and the delegates of the upper baronial com- mittees into colonels. The colonels of each county recommended three of their number for the post of adjutant-general, and from those names the directorate selected one. The generals were appointed by the directorate. Harwood attributes this change from a civil to a military constitution to the formation of Yeomanry Corps, in which the Catholics, though not excluded, were received with such evident suspicion and dislike that very few of the farmers of that com- munion joined the new force. It is obvious, however, that the Catholics might have outnumbered the Pro- testants in the Yeomanry Corps, if they had been so disposed ; and the resolution of the United Irishmen to resort to arms sufficiently explains the conversion of the Society into an army, without the supposition of other and minor motives. Arming and drilling went on throughout the autumn of 1796, those who were unable to buy a musket or bavonet beingr provided with nikes. Men TSE UNITED IBI8BMEN. 71 were drilled by twelves in the houses of members, and in larger numbers on lonely wastes, by the light of the moon. The number of United Irishmen enrolled at this time in the province of Ulster alone was about a hundred thousand, and there were probably nearly as many in the province of Munster, and more than half that number in the province of Leinster. How many men of this large force were armed with muskets is unknown; bub there can be no doubt that the majority had only pikes, with the addition in some cases of a pistol. They are said to have possessed "some artillery,"* but the guns were probably few and small. The failure of Hoche's expedition disposed the leaders of the United Irishmen to more moderate courses, and the concession of Catholic emancipation and Parliamentary reform would have been received with satisfaction, and been followed by the disarming and dissolution of the Society. Such a settlement of the Irish difficulty was thought probable in the be- ginning of 1797, but the illusion soon faded out, and the determination of the Grovernment to adopt with vigour a policy of repression left the organisers of the movement no other course than resistance. Insur- rection could be, in the existing condition of the country, only a question of time, and they could not withdraw from its direction without bringing eternal dishonour on their names. All through the winter troops were poured into the country, the yeomanry armed and trained, hundreds of arrests made, suspected persons banished * Harwood. 72 TBB UNITED IBISKMEN. without trial, and outrages committed by the troops and the yeomanry which rivalled those of the De- fenders and the Peep-of-Day Boys. The office of the Northern Star, a Belfast journal conducted by Neilson and representing the United Irishmen, was one day attacked by soldiers, who broke open the doors, de- stroyed the printing presses, and threw the type into the street. No redress for such outrages could be obtained, the authorities seeming to regard persons suspected of" disaffection to the Government as beyond the pale of the law. Landowners and substautial i'armers who fell under the suspicion of the authorities had soldiers quartered upon them, often in numbers and for periods which made the visitation a heavy tax upon their means. This practice seems not to have been without disadvantages to the Government, for, on one occasion, when a large party of soldiers was billeted upon Roger O'Connor, the brother of Arthur, and father of Feargus O'Connor, the officers sat over their wine until they were all more or less intoxicated, when their host proceeded to the servants' hall, where the rank and file were revelling, and in- duced the whole of them to take the oath of the United Irishmen. Two or three of them were after- wards shot on suspicion of disloyalty, but none of them informed against O'Connor.* Under these circumstances, arming and drilling were actively proceeded with among the United Irish- men, and by the spring the system was in its fullest vigour. The organisation was extensive and efficient, the zeal and confidence' of the people unbounded, and Autobiograpliy of Peargus O'Connor. THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 73 the temper of a large proportion of the militia such that their co-operation in an insurrection was deemed certain. Some changes took place in the directorate which tended to give additional vigour to the move- ment; Arthur O'Connor had been elected in the pre- ceding November, and Thomas Addis Emmet and Oliver Bond, a barrister and a wholesale woollen-draper, became his colleagues early in 1797. Madden says that Bond declined to act officially, but continued in the confidence of his co-directors, and was consulted by them on all important occasions. As the instruc- tions sent to the provincial committees were signed by only one member of the directorate, it seems that this must be understood to mean only that Bond never signed such instructions. It is not certain who the other members of the directorate were at this time, the precaution just referred to rendering it difficult, and in some instances impossible, to deter- mine who composed the executive at any particular period. Madden says that Macormick, a Dublin manufacturer, was one, " though not ostensibly, or by specific appointment, belonging to it." This is unin- telligible, as Macormick could not have sat on the directorate, according to the constitution of the Society, without having been elected. Lord Cloncurry is said to have been a member of the directorate at one time, but took no active part in the proceedings.* The new directorate had scarcely been constituted when O'Connor was arrested, apparently on a vague suspicion only, since he was liberated, after an incar- ceration of six months, on undertaking to surrender * Madden. 74 THE UNITED IRISHMEN. for trial whenever called upon, and Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Oliver Bond becoming bail for Hm. O'Connor afterwards stated that shots were twice fired at the window of his room while he was in prison, his inference being that the authorities having no evidence against liim wished to remove him by assas- sination. The accusation would be too dreadful for belief if a warder named Hasset had not deposed, on O'Connor's trial in the following year, that the shots were actually fired by a soldier. O'Connor added, in a letter to Lord Castlereagh, that a third attempt, and a payment of money to the soldier by a King's messenger, could have been deposed to by the wife of the gaoler, if she had not been iU at the time. Throughout this year the condition of Ireland was terrible. The Defenders and the Peep-of-Day Boys, the United Irishmen and the constituted authorities, the troops and the yeomanry, vied with each other in deeds of lawlessness. The report of a secret com- mittee sitting at Dublin Castle states that, in order "to deter the well-aflfected from joining the Yeomanry Corps, and to render the administration altogether in- efiectual, the most active system of terror was put in operation. Persons enrolled in the yeomanry, magis- trates, witnesses, jurors — in a word, every class and distinction of people who ventured to support the laws — became objects of the most cruel persecution in their persons, property, and even in the line of their busi- ness; and multitudes were compelled to take illegal oaths, and profess adherence to the party as a means of security. In the latter end of 1796, and beginning of 1797, the loyal inhabitants of Ulster suffered most severely from the depredations of the United Irish- THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 75 men. Throughout the province they were stripped of . their arms. The most horrid murders were perpe- trated by large bodies of men in open day ; and it became nearly impossible to bring the offenders to justice, from the inevitable destruction that awaited witnesses or jurors who dared to perform their duty.'' There is no evidence whatever that the murders committed by or attributed to the United Irishmen were ordered by the chiefs of that Society as part of a system of terror; but that such crimes were committed by members of that organisation is undeniable. The Grovernment made no earnest endeavours to repress crimes proceeding from the antagonism of race and creed until, as the outrages of the Peep-of-Day Boys set in motion the Defenders, those of the Orangemen provokedretaliationon the part of the United Irishmen. Then they endeavoured to fix on the latter the odium of all the outrages which could not be traced to the Orangemen or the mihtary, and pointed to the advo- cacy of assassination by the Union Star, a Dublin journal professing to emanate from the United Irish- men, as proof of the justice of the accusation. This journal, the publication of which commenced in 1797, was not supported by the United Irishmen, whose leaders repudiated it, and whose organs denounced it, and it was never prosecuted by the Government, as the Press (conducted by O'Connor) and the Northern, Star were. If an}^ farther evidence of its being sub- sidised by the Grovernment for the basest purposes is required, it is to be found in the fact that Cox, its proprietor and editor, was subsequently rewarded with a pension. The Grovernment, which had for years regarded the 76 THE UNITED IRISHMEN. growth of anarchy and crime with supineness, had now- commenced a course- of vigorous and systematic repression ; and as every day confirmed their appre- hensions of the extent and power of the United Irish- men, power was obtained from Parliament to disarm the people, and to disperse by force assemblages which might be deemed to have a tendency to riot, without waiting for the authorisation of a magistrate. It was easier, however, to determine upon this policy than to realise it. As Arthur O'Connor afterwards reminded Lord Clare, they could not frame a bill of indictment against a whole people ; and the United Irishmen had now assumed a formidable extent and consistency. Very little progress could be made in disarming the people, who were exasperated rather than subdued by the proclamation of martial law, and meetings were heard of only after they had been held. Bribery and espionage were, therefore, resorted to on an extensive scale, and on the 14th of April information was obtained by these means that two committees of United Irishmen were sitting in Belfast. Troops thereupon surrounded the house where the committees met, and fifteen persons were arrested, and papers seized, which were referred to a secret committee sitting at Dublin Castle. "It appears," says the report of this committee, " from a variety of evidence, that" no means are neglected for establishing their constitution and enforcing obedience to their laws ; that contributions are levied to defray the expenses of the society ; that threats and intimidations are employed against witnesses and jurymen, as a means to prevent their associates from being brought to justice, and that a THE UNITED IBISEMEN. 77 committee is appointed to defray the expenses of de- fending such as are brought to trial, or are in prison; that the assistance of the Trench is expected, and held forth as negotiated for ; that at Belfast alone exist eighty societies at least, and that emissaries are em- ployed to extend these societies ; that arms and am- munition are procured, pikes bought, officers appointed, military discipline recommended, and en- forced by oaths to be taken by officers and men ; pro- vision for the families of their Society during their exertions in the field ; that suspected persons are brought to account for their actions ; and it has been stated in evidence that a tribunal is appointed for this purpose, who try the offenders in their absence, and determine their punishment, even to the death." Harwood pronounces the latter passages false, and no evidence was adduced in support of the allegation, which may have been fabricated by the spies and in- formers upon whom the Government depended, in a great measure, for their information. That such horrible means of earning their blood-money were re- sorted to by those infamous wretches is established by the subsequent confession of one of them, a scoundrel named Newell, an artist by profession, and a traitor by inborn disposition, who betrayed the secrets of the United Irishmen to the Government, and then sold the secrets of the Government to his former associates. This man not only declared that Cooke, the secretary of the Irish Government, made additions to his affida- vits, and prompted him to denounce men whom he did not know, but confessed that, when giving evidence before the secret committee, he " improved largely on the hints and instructions Mr. Cooke had given, pro- 78 TEE UNITMB IRISHMEN. pagated circumstances wtich never had, nor I sup- pose ever will happen, increased the number of United Irishmen, and the quantity of arms and am- munition, and fabricated stories which helped to terrify them, and raised me high in their estimation as a man whose perfect knowledge of this business made his information of the highest importance." After ten months of a life " fraught," as he confesses, " with every scene of infamy, luxury, and debauchery, during which I must have cost the Grovernment no less than two thousand pounds," this execrable wretch left Dublin, and made the confession from which the fore- going passages have been quoted. The Government, alarmed by the extent and efficiency of the organisation of the United Irishmen, now offered the Eoyal pardon to all who surrendered and took the oath of allegiance on or before the 24th of June, excepting persons guilty of felony, and those already in custody. The directorate, aware that the measures of the Grovernment would not allow them to be inactive, sent Lewins, a Dublin attorney, to Paris in March, 1797, to urge the French Government to make another effort in support of the cause of revolu- tion in Ireland. The communication was difficult at that time, and Lewins had to travel vi^ Hamburg, under the assumed name of Thompson. Eheynhart, the French Minister at Hamburg, furnished him with credentials to Hoche, with whom he had a conference at Frankfort, whence he proceeded to Paris. Neither Lewins nor Dr. Macnevin, who followed him in June, with an elaborate memoir on the state of Ireland, could at first obtain from the Directory more than professions of sympathy and promises of the vaguest TEE UNITED IBI8EMEN. 79 character ; but in July the directorate received a letter from the former, informing them that an expedition, intended for the invasion of Ireland, would shortly be despatched from the Texel. The Dutch fleet being encountered and defeated by Admiral Duncan, the hopes which the United Irishmen based on foreign aid were again frustrated ; but towards the close of the year, Lewins, who had remained in Paris as the accredited agent of the Society, after the return of Macnevin to Ireland in October, informed the direc- torate that the attempt to land a French force in Ireland would be renewed in the following spring, and their hopes were raised once more to a high pitch. Macnevin was elected to the directorate shortly after his return from Paris, and in February, 1798, a military committee was appointed, with instructions to prepare a plan for the co-operation of the United Irishmen with their French allies, and for an insur- rection without foreign aid in the event of the invasion failing, or an outbreak being precipitated by the measures of the Government before the invaders arrived. This contingency the directorate, notwith- standing the large .force at their command, were anxious to avoid. It was estimated by Lord Edward Fitzgerald that the armed force of the United Irish- men was nearly two hundred and eighty thousand men, but the funds in hand amounted to less than fifteen hundred pounds. The greatest strength of the association was in Ulster, where it numbered about one hundred and ten thousand members. Munster came next, with about a hundred thousand. In Con- naught it had not obtained a footing. Naturally a larger deduction must be made from the numbers 80 THE UNITED IBI8HMEN. shown on paper from a force of revolutionary origin than from the regular forces of a lawfully constituted State ; and Madden states that he had reason to know that Lord Edward Fitzgerald did not calculate upon placing more than a hundred thousand effectives in the field. The explanation of this large deduction is found in the fact that the Association was at this time in a less vigorous condition than it had been a year before. Disappointment and delay, treachery, and the sus- picion of treachery, had sapped its strength. The numbers had increased, for it is rarely that members of a secret society withdraw their names ; but the spirit of the men was evaporating, the subscriptions had fallen off, and fewer members attended the meetings, whether of local societies or committees. They were as ready to take the field as they had ever been, but, like raw soldiers, who will charge the enemy with boldness, but cannot be kept steady under a fire which they cannot return, they were shaken by the knowledge that treachery was among them, and that they had yet months to wait for the French. The full extent of that treachery will never be known. There is a fearful suggestiveness in the guarded statement of Madden that " the betrayers of the Society were not the poor or inferior members of it ; some of them were high in the confidence of the Directory ; others not sworn in, but trusted with its concerns, learned in the law, social in their habits, liberal in politics, prodigal in tlaeir expenses, needy in their circumstances, and therefore covetous of money ; loose in their public and private principles, and there- fore open to temptation." A copy of the memoir THE UNITED IRISHMEN. 81 drawn up for the French Government in 1797 found its way into the possession of Cooke, the Irish secre- tary, through unknown hands. Macnevin told the secret committee, when under examination on the subject of the negotiations in which he took part, that it could have been obtained only by " some person in the pay of England and in the confidence of France." That person has not been named, unless by implica- tion. Madden seems disposed to impute treachery to some member of the French Government ; but, while the moral character of more than one member of the Directory did not rank high, there were others to whom the remark of Macnevin equally applied, and who, being in an inferior position, were more accessible, and likely to have proved corruptible at a cheaper rate. There was treachery among the partisans of the Government, however, as well as among the United Irishmen. O'Connor told the secret committee that minute information of every act of tbe Government was obtained by the directorate. Eelations were maintained between O'Connor and Cox which are inexplicable, unless by the hypothesis that the latter betrayed such secrets of the Castle as became known to him in the course of his communications with Cooke. There were men, too, in a much higher social position than Cox — members of the upper classes of Irish society, on terms of confidence with Lord Clare and with Lord Castlereagh — who had friends or rela- tives among the United Irishmen — Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Lord Cloncurry, and Arthur O'Connor, for instances, to whom, in confidence, as a proof of their friendship, or in the unguarded hours of con- VOL. I. ^ 82 THE UNITED IRISHMEN. yiviality, they imparted their knowledge of the Grovermnental designs and intentions. This is not mere inference or surmise. Madden asserts, on the authority of Macnevin, that members of the Privy Council and general of&cers then serving in Ireland were among those privately known to he favourably disposed towards the United Irishmen. That the costs of the defence of the leaders were borne by oflBcers of distinction there can be no doubt. Bernard Duggan, who was deeply implicated in the conspiracy, told Madden that he should have been hanged if ample means of obtaining legal assistance had not been timeously supplied by officers serving in the district in which he was confined, and to whom he was utterly unknown. There was more than private friendship in this ; more, it may reasonably be inferred, than the ordinary promptings of humanity. Some of these military friends of the movement may be traced. Puggan named Colonel Lumm as the officer by whom the money for his defence was sent. This officer and Major Plunkett were among the friends who visited Lord Edward Fitzgerald in his prison.* Teeling, speaking of persons who, from the position in which they stood towards the Government, must have made great sacrifices and incurred con- siderable risk in communicating with the leaders of the United Irishmen, says that he was conversing one evening with Lord Edward Fitzgerald, when Colonel Lumm entered, accompanied by two other gentlemen unknown to him, but whom he believed were members of the Irish Parliament. Lumm embraced Fitzgerald * Moore's Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. THE UNITED IBI8HMEK 83 with fraternal warmth of affection, and said, placing a heavy bag of gold before him, "There, my lord, is provision for ." Teeling does not appear to have heard the concluding words of the sentence, but he adds, ■" A few hours would have placed Lord Edward at the head of the troops of Kildare."* To these statements I need add only that Colonel Lumm was arrested in England in May, 1798, and taken to Dublin in the custody of a King's messenger. Ireland, towards the close of 1797, resembled a fire which has apparently been extinguished, but the embers of which still glow, and may be fanned into a blaze by the lightest breeze. There was an appearance of quietude which led superficial observers to believe that the people had been coerced into submission. But beneath this seeming calm discontent was still rife, and the elements of revolt were drawing rapidly to a head. The organisation of the United Irishmen was being extended in Munster, and pushing its rami- fications into Connaught, where it had previously been unknown. Emissaries from Dublin and Belfast traversed those provinces in every direction, frater- nising with the Defenders, who were absorbed into the United Irish system during the autumn and winter by the skilful manipulation of these agents, who adapted their language to their listeners, and, while refraining from descanting on the rights of man, were eloquent on the question of the land and the tithes. The views and aims of these new adherents naturally presented a wide divergence from those of the chiefs * Personal Narrative of the Irisli EebeUion. g2 84 THE UNITED IBI8EMEN. of the conspiracy. As observed by Harwood, " the ideas of the Emmets, Neilsons, and Macnevins were not their ideas. The United Irish system was, to them, little else than the old system of Defenderism, or Whiteboyism, under a new name, made efficient and respectable by an unlooked-for accession of allies from the middle and higher classes of society. But how- ever defective their theory of republican government, they were perfectly well versed in the practice of re- bellion ; and this union of the intellectual with the physical force of the country — this alliance of the Hpeculative republicanism of the Presbyterian north with the practical wrongs and wretchedness of the Catholic south — boded for the coming year a con- vulsion desperate and deadly." The execution of Orr, which foreshadowed the com- ing terror, showed the anxiety of the Grovernment concerning this mysterious organisation, and filled the minds of the disaffected with thoughts of revenge. Orr, who was a man of the highest character, and respected by all who knew him, was charged with administering the oath of the United Irishmen to a soldier of the Scotch Fencibles, who was the only wit- ness against him, and was shown to be a man of in- famous life and repute. He was convicted, however, and condemned to death. The jury had recommended him to mercy, and the most strenuous efforts were made to procure a commutation of the sentence. Three of the jury made affidavits that whisky was given to them during their deliberations ; that some of them were threatened with the vengeance of the Government if they acquitted the prisoner, and others assured that the Government wished only to obtain a TBH UNITED IRISHMEN. 85 eonviction, and that the life of the accused was safe ; and that the verdict was given under the influence of drink, intimidation, and the physical exhaustion of a deliberation of thirteen hours. In such circumstances the Government might well hesitate. Orr was three times respited, and was offered his life if he would confess his guilt. He refused, and his execution followed. His last words — ■" Eemember Orr !" — dwelt long in the memory of his countrymen, and were often repeated during the following year as the watch- words of conspiracy and the battle-cry of revolt. The execution of Orr was followed by the arrest of sixteen United Irishmen on information given by O'Brien, one of the infamous wretches who had lately been taken into the service of the Irish Government, and who achieved an unenviable notoriety as the Bat- talion of Testimony. This man, who was the chief witness against the accused, had been a common in- former against persons who infringed the excise regulations, and who would not purchase his silence by submitting to his extortions ; and had ajso, as he confessed under cross-examination, been concerned in the fabrication of spurious coin. The prisoners were defended by Curran and Macnally, two of the most eminent members of the Irish bar.* During the trial * Curran was never ajEliated tO' the United Irishmen, though he sympathised deeply with the movement, and was intimate with the leaders. He thought he could serve the cause better by keeping aloof from the Society. Macnally was a member, as was Grattan also. From the subsequent award of a pension to Macnally,- and the fact of the initials L. N., supposed to mean Leonard Nally, occurring iu' the Irish secret service accounts. Madden concludes Macnally to have been an informer against the United Irishmen ; but the evidence is weak aud iasu£cie;at. 86 TEE UNITED IBISHMEN. the defending counsel received information that per- jury on the part of O'Brien could be proved if time was allowed for the journey toI>ublin of an important witness. Knowing that no indulgence was to be ex- pected from the Crown, Macnally protracted his cross- examination of the witnesses for the prosecution until the witness arrived, when O'Brien's perjury was proved, and the prisoners were acquitted. O'Brien was hanged two years afterwards for a brutal murder, an immense concourse of people hailing his well- deserved fate with shouts of exultation. Wheatley, the soldier who had informed against Orr, confessed afterwards that he also had committed perjury. The execution of Orr, the narrow escape of Finney and his companions, the irritation excited by the search for arms, the general presentiment of an im- pending convulsion, all tended at this time to produce in the eastern and southern counties a condition bor- dering closely upon anarchy. During the months of February and March many parts of the provinces of Leinster and Munster were overrun by lawless bands, which, by confining their incursions and ravages to the hours of darkness, rendered their operations more diflficult to be repressed by the regular troops and yeomanry. Not a night passed without murders and incendiary fires. Several districts had been proclaimed under the extraordinary powers given by Parliament to the Lord-Lieutenant and Council; but these measures proved ineffectual. Very many of the loyal inhabitants of the counties of Cork, Limerick, Tippe- rary, Kilkenny, Carlow, King's County, Queen's County, Kildare, and Wicklow were, in the course of one month, stripped of their arms, and in many places TEE UNITED IBIBEMEN. 87 obliged to fly for shelter into the garrison towns ; and as one instance among many of tlie daring lengths to which the conspirators at this time had proceeded, eight hundred insurgents, principally mounted, in- vested the town of Cahir, in the county of Tipperary, in open day, held possession of it until they had made a regular search through every house, and carried off in triumph all the arms and ammunition they could find.* Fear engenders cruelty ,- and the Government, baffled in their endeavours to suppress the United Irishmen by the firmness of Orr and the failure of the perjury of O'Brien, sanctioned, if they did not initiate, a system of terrorism over the whole island. I will not harrow the feelings of the reader by reproducing the terrible scenes of torture and murder, the floggings, the pitch-cappings, the hangings, and the burnings, which have been related by Madden, and Plowden,t and Harwood, and which Sir Eichard MusgraveJ has attempted to justify, but which no writer has denied. I wiU merely remark that these horrible outrages tended to precipitate the rebellion, of which Arthur O'Connor deposed before the secret committee they were the cause, and that their effect on the mind of Sir John Moore, who held an important command in Ireland at that time, was such that he once declared to a friend that if he had been an Irishman he should have been a rebel. There is no doubt that the Government, having succeeded neither in disarming the United Irishmen,. * Eeport of tlie Secret Committee. f History of Ireland.. J History of the Eebellion. TEE UNITED IRISHMEN. nor in discovering their leaders, wished at this tune to bring the conspiracy to a head, and crush it at once. The leaders of the Society saw no other means of bringing to an end the prevailing system of anarchy and terror ; the rank and file were burning for action and for reprisals. Everything tended, therefore, to precipitate an outbreak. The hope of aid from France grew fainter every day. Hoche was now dead, Carnot politically proscribed, Buonaparte in Egypt. Emmet and some others, the more clear-headed of the leaders of the United Irishmen, had always been of the opinion that dependence on France was a fatal mis- take ; and the journals of the Society show that the French alliance had kept them always waiting and expecting, alternately elated by delusive hopes, and cast down by disappointment. The executive committee consisted at this time •of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Oliver Bond, Arthur .O'Connor, Dr. Macnevin, and the elder Emmet. At a meeting of the provincial committee of Leioster, held in February, Fitzgerald proposed an immediate rising, which was objected to by some of the members, on the ground that it would be better to wait for the arrival of the promised expedition from France. , Fitzgerald told them that no aid was to be expected from that quarter ; and, after some discussion, it was resolved to take immediate measures for a general in- surrection. As a last effort to obtain aid from France, however, O'Connor left Dublin at this time, and proceeded to London, where he remained some time, while Binns, one of four other United Irishmen who accompanied him, visited Whitstable, Deal, and Margate, en- TEE UNITED IRISHMEN. 89 deavouring to hire a small vessel to convey them to France. During his stay in London, O'Connor was frequently the guest of Fox, and in close and con- fidential communication with him concerning the state of Ireland, and the organisation of the United Irishmen, with whose views and objects Fox was pro- bably well acquainted. On the 27th, his servant, O'Leary, accompanied a priest named Coigly, and another United Irishman, named Allen, to Margate, where they were joined the same day by O'Connor and Binns, under the assumed names of Morris and Williams. The previous movements of Binns having been tracked by police-officers of the Bow Street establishment, a party of those red-vested janizaries followed them from London, and arrested the whole party next morning at their hotel. In O'Connor's trunks a green military uniform was found, together with nine hundred pounds in gold and some papers, among which was a key to a cipher correspondence with Lord Edward Fitzgerald. The chief evidence against the prisoners, however, was a paper, purporting to be a memoir prepared by a " secret committee of England " for the French Go- vernment, inviting the enemy to invade England, which was found in a pocket-book, in the pocket of an overcoat belonging to Coigly. This document formed the groundwork of the prosecution when the prisoners were brought to trial at Maidstone on the 21st of May, but there was no evidence to connect the United Irishmen with its purpose, and, with the exception of Coigly, they were acquitted. On this occasion, Fox, Erskine, and Sheridan, who had known O'Connor three years, and Grrattan, who had been 90 THB UNITED IBI8BMEN. intimately acquainted with him for six years, testified to his being " a man of the strictest honour and in- tegrity," " highly enlightened, and firmly attached to the principles which had seated the reigning family on the throne." On the conclusion of the trial, at ten o'clock at night, a scene ensued which has been variously described by the difierent writers whose narrations of the events of the period have been published. Madden says that the verdict was no sooner delivered than an attempt was made by Bow Street ofiScers to arrest O'Connor on another charge before he could leave the dock ; and that, on O'Connor breaking from them, and rushing into the body of the Court, a body of Bow Street officers appeared, and a scene of great confusion ensued, swords being drawn, and several persons knocked down, before O'Connor was over- powered, and dragged back to the dock. Feargus O'Connor related the incident very dif- ferently. "The trial," as he told the story, "lasted all day, and a considerable portion of the night. The Grovernment felt satisfied that his death would be insured ; but, lest they should be disappointed, there was another indictment prepared against him in case he should be acquitted. He was acquitted, and when the verdict was pronounced. Lord Thanet and Cutlar Ferguson, subsequently a member of Parliament, and one of the Ministers, stood on each side of the dock ; they blew out the candles, and my uncle being a very active man, he put one hand upon the shoulder of Lord Thanet, and the other upon Cutlar Ferguson's, when hejumped out of the dock, and made his escape. However, as he was running down a street, he was TEE UNITED IBI8HMEN. 91 tripped up by a constable, and again taken into custody. Of course he was perfectly aware tbat the Government would use its every influence to secure his death, and therefore he entered into a condition to be transported for life.* Lord Thanet was sentenced to twelve months'^ imprisonment, and Cutlar Fergu- son to six, for assisting him to mate his escape." The version given by the brother of Binns makes Coigly the central figure of this strange scene. He says: "Sentence of death was passed on Coigly at night. The Court-house was lit with lamps. Coigly was near escaping ; the terror in the Court was extreme ; the cry of ' put out the lights ' was heard ; there were swords drawn in Court, and, in the scufltte, O'Connor received some blows ; Lord Thanet was arrested for rioting in court. The fact is, prepara- tions were made for effecting the prisoner's escape, and fast horses were engaged, and in readiness on the road, to facilitate Coigly's flight." There are similar discrepancies as to the crimina- tory document found in the pocket-book supposed to be Coigly's. The priest asserted that he knew nothing about it, and even upon the scaffold repeated the assertion in the most solemn manner. This statement has been contradicted, however, both by O'Connor and the brother of Binns, in their com- munications to Madden ; and the account of the paper given by Binns agrees with the statement made after Coigly's execution, by the counsel who defended O'Leary — namely, that Coigly received the memoir from Dr. Crossfield, a member of the London Corre- * Feargus O'Coxmor was not well informed on this point. 92 TEE UNITED IBIBHMEN. spending Society, with instructions to -procure its insertion in the Moniteur, for the purpose of alarming and distracting the British Government, and that Coigly went to the scaffold rather than betray Cross- field. One of the members of the Leinster provincial com- mittee at this time was Thomas Reynolds, who had been a silk manufacturer in Dublin, but had retired from business, and purchased the castle and estate of Kilkea. He had been initiated into the Society by Bond early in 1797, and advanced quickly to the grade of captain, or lower baronial delegate. In November he succeeded Lord Edward Fitzgerald, at the latter's request, as colonel of the barony of Kilkea, Fitzgerald having reason at that time to be- lieve that he was suspected by the Government. He- seems seldom to have attended the meetings of the baronial committee, however, and, if his own account is to be believed, had no knowledge of the conspiracy until February, 1798, when he attended a county com- mittee, held at the Nineteen Mile House, on the road to Dublin, and was elected delegate to the provincial committee. Alarmed by what he then heard, he failed to attend the meeting of the Leinster com- mittee on the following day, and proceeded to Dublin to remonstrate with the leading conspirators. Warned by Neilson that they would "have no half-measure men," and laughed at for his fears by others, he resolved to withdraw from the Society, and take measures which be hoped would " so neutralise the plans of the United Irishmen as to stop thein^ without compromising their personal safety, and at once save his country, his friends, and his own TEE UNITEB IBI8BMEN. 93 honour."* While considering the means of realising this intention — so often indulged in similar circum- stances, but never accomplished— he encountered an old friend, a merchant named Cope, who, in the course of a conversation on the state of the country, per- suaded him that wealth and honours would be liberally bestowed by the Government upon any one who would betray the secret organisation which they had vainly expended so much money, and taken so much pains, to unearth. Eeynolds said that he knew a person who was disposed to do so, but protested that he was actuated by higher motives than the hope of reward; and at length took Cope into his confi- dence, revealed the plan of the conspiracy, and informed him that the final meeting would be held at Bond's house on the 12th of March. Bond was the only one of the conspirators whom Eeynolds had named ; but, knowing that few, if any, of the leaders would escape if they attended the meet- ing, and wishing to save Lord Edward Fitzgerald, he visited him on the day before that fixed for the meeting, and showed him a paper containing secret orders for the Yeomanry Corps, of a tenour indicating that the authorities were on the alert to meet and suppress some impending commotion. The manner in which this paper came into the informer's possession is one of the many singular circumstances connected with this conspiracy, which seems expHcable only by the supposition of the double treachery of which there were several instances. Eeynolds sup- posed its production to have had the desired efiect. * Life of Thomas Eeynolds, by Ma ,Son. 94 THS UNITED IBISSMEN. Fitzgerald became agitated, and Beynolds inferred from his absence from the meeting on the following day that he took the alarm, and resolved not to attend. The inference is unwarranted, either by reason or facts. If Fitzgerald had resolved not to attend the meeting, he would have communicated with his col- leagues, which he did not do ; and the real cause of his absence was that, having reached the corner of the street in which Bond's house was situated, he saw Major Sirr and his party enter, and immediately re- traced his steps. On the following day Bond's house was sur- rounded by soldiers, and himself and thirteen others, forming the provincial committee of Leinster, were arrested, and their journals and correspondence seized. Emmet and Macnevin were arrested at their homes about the same time. The prisoners were taken to the Castle for a preliminary examination, after which they were all committed to Newgate gaol on the charge of treason. These arrests did not damp the ardour or weaken the resolves of the United Irishmen. The Leinster provincial committee was reconstituted before night, and probably the executive also, though only John Sheares is known to have immediately taken the place of one of the arrested directors of the move- ment. The new chief was a barrister of good repute, loved and respected by all who knew him, and, with his brother, had been in the society almost from its commencement. A letter was received shortly after- wards from Teeling, who was then in Paris, informing the Leinster provincial committee that a new ex- pedition would be despatched from France in April ; TffB UNITED IBISSMEN. 95 but it was resolved that the rising should take place this time, whether the French came or not, and arm- ing and drilling, and the formation of depots of military stores, went on actively. Early in May the plan of the insurrection was fully arranged, and the day fixed for its execution. The United Irishmen of the counties of Dublin, Wicklow, and Kildare were to advance simultaneously upon the capital under the direction of Lord Edward Fitz- gerald, surprise the camp at Loughlinstown and the artillery dep6t at Chapelizod, and seize Lord Camden, Lord Clare, Lord Castlereagh, and other members of the Irish Government, who were to be held as hostages.. The detention of the mails was to be the signal for the rising of the United Irishmen all over the island. Lord Camden had, in the meantime, issued a pro- clamation announcing that a conspiracy against the Crown and Grovernment had been discovered; that acts of violence and rebellion had been committed in divers parts of the country ; and that all the forces at his disposal would be employed with the utmost rigour and decision to suppress the rebellion, and disarm all disaffected persons by the most summary and effectual measures. All the spies and informers attached to the Castle were at the same time employed in endeavouring to discover the hiding-place of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, for whose arrest a reward of one thousand pounds was offered, and to ascertain who had succeeded the men in custody in the direction of the conspiracy. Lord Castlereagh had found it neces- sary to obtain the services for such purposes of men in a higher social position than O'Brien, and secret 96 THE UNITED IRISHMEN. service money found its way into the pockets of such men as Sir G-eorge Hill and Captain Armstrong. The accounts of Cooke, secretary to Lord Clare, record several payments of secret service money to the former between the autumn of 1797 and the close of 1799; and the latter earned indelible infamy as the betrayer of the brothers Sheares, whose friend he had pretended to be, and whose hospitality he had shared. One of the principal booksellers in Dublin at that time was Byrne, who had joined the United Irishmen, and whose shop was a favourite lounge of liberal- minded men of all professions. Among those who resorted to it for the literary and political gossip of the day was Captain Armstrong, whose con- versations with Byrne led the latter to regard him as what the present generation calls " an advanced Liberal." The political views which he expressed were so far advanced that Byrne, on the 10th of May, did not hesitate to ini.roduce him to John Sheares as " a true brother," and to usher them into a private room behind the shop, in order that they might con- verse at their ease. Armstrong at once declared himself in favour of the national movement, and offered his aid ; and Sheares, naturally open-hearted, and thrown oS his guard by Byrne's sponsorship of Armstrong, and the latter's well-assumed enthusiasm, informed him that the rising was at hand, and that he might assist it by seducing the soldiers in the camp at Lehaunstown. An appointment was made for the l8th at the house of Henry Sheares, in Bagot Street, where the conversation was renewed, John Sheares becoming more and more confidential. On returning THE UNITED IRISHMEN. . 97 to the camp at Lehaunstown, Armstrong communi- cated to Colonel Lestrange, the commandant, all that he had heard, and also made a communication on the subject to Lord Castlereagh. During the follow- ing week he was a frequent visitor at the house of Henry Sheares, and on the 20th he gleaned from the brothers all the details of the conspiracy, which he immediately communicated to the Castle. The crisis was now at hand, the 23rd having been fixed for the rising. Lord Edward Fitzgerald was arrested on the day preceding the final interview of Armstrong with the unsuspecting brothers Sheares. He had frequently changed his lodging since the arrests of the 12th of March, and his various places of hiding were known only to the leaders of the United Irishmen. During this period of anxiety and excite- ment he had some narrow escapes. On one occasion, about the middle of May, when he and Neilson had ridden from Dublin to the borders of Kildare, they were stopped at Palmerstown by the patrol, and ques- tioned as to their business. Neilson pretended in- toxication to avoid answering, and Fitzgerald, who described himself as a surgeon, gave an account of the purpose of his journey which was accepted as satisfactory. In his walks about Dublin on the busi- ness of the conspiracy he was always attended by half a dozen friends of tried courage, who walked in advance of him, followed in the rear, and watched from the opposite side of the street. Colonel Lumm and Major Plunkett were among the friends who formed this escort. He was tracked, however, to a house in Thomas Street, and arrested there by a party of soldiers, led VOL. I. H 98 • TEE UNITSn IBISHMBN. by Major Sirr, Major Swan, and a yeomanry captain named Ryan. The circumstances of the arrest have been variously related. Murphy, the occupier of the house, who was arrested at the same time, says that Lord Edward Fitzgerald was lying on the bed, partly undressed, when Major Swan entered the room, and that he immediately sprang from the bed, drew a dagger, and struck Swan, inflicting a slight wound. Swan then discharged a pistol, but missed his aim, and thereupon retreated. The Duke of Portland, in a private letter, quoted by Madden, says that " Lord Edward, who was armed with a case of pistols and a dagger, stood on his defence, shot Mr. Eyan in the stomach, and wounded Mr. Swan with the dagger in two places. Major Sirr, on entering the room, and observing Lord Edward with the dagger uplifted in his hands, fired at him, and wounded him in the arm of the hand that held the weapon, upon which he was secured." The Duke of Portland must have been misled by unfounded statements received from others. Fitzgerald had no pistols : the dagger, which had a horn hilt and a zigzag blade, was one of several that were made for the leaders of the United Irishmen, by a cutler in Bridge Street, named Byrne. But the concluding portion of this statement agrees with the accounts given by Sirr himself, in a letter to Eyan's son, which appeared in the London journals in 1839, and by the younger Eyan, who, in an account pub- lished at the same time, states that " Major Swan first entered Lord Edward's apartment, and, on finding his lordship, cried out, ' You are my prisoner ;' upon which the latter aimed a blow with his da;5-ger at Swan, who parried it with his hand. The T&S UNITED IRISHMEN. blade, after passing the fingers, glanced along the side, inflicting a superficial wound, of which he reco- vered in about a fortnight. Swan, thus wounded, exclaimed, ' Ryan, Ryan, I am basely murdered !' Captain Ryan, who had been searching another part of the house, on hearing this exclamation, immediately ran in, and, seizing Lord Edward, threw him back on the bed, where a violent struggle ensued, in which Captain Ryan received an awful wound in the stomach. He instantly started up, and attempted to use a sword-cane. A most unequal contest followed, and lasted for about ten minutes, in the course of which Captain Ryan, unarmed, resolutely maintained his grasp of his prisoner, who, with desperate ferocity, inflicted wound after wound, to the number of four- teen. Captain Ryan's hands being disabled, he clung round Lord Edward with his legs, and, though dragged through the room towards the door, effec- tually prevented Lord Edward's escape to the stair- case. All this time Lord Edward was unhurt, his opponent defenceless ; nevertheless, he recklessly wounded and brandished his awfully-constructed double-edged dagger, worn for the express purpose of carrying death to any assailant. This horrifying scene lasted until the arrival of the soldiers, and was terminated by Major Sirr discharging a pistol at Lord Edward: the ball entered his shoulder; but even then, so outrageous was he, that the military had to cross their muskets, and force him down to the floor, ' before he could be secured." According to the surgical evidence given on the inquest on Eitzgerald, two shots must have been fired, unless Sirr had put two bullets into his pistol; for H 2 100 TEE UNITED IBISEMEN. two were extracted from his shoulder, the inflamma- tion and fever resulting from the wound thus inflicted resulting in his death a few days after his arrest. None of his relatives and friends were allowed to see him until a few hours before. Lord Oare, in refusing permission to Lord Henry Fitzgerald, one of the dying prisoner's brothers, said — " If I could explain to you the grounds for this restriction, even you would hardly be induced to condemn it as unnecessarily harsh." The mystery that lurked under these words has never been cleared up. Even Leeson, the soli- citor who made the prisoner's will, was not allowed to enter the prison, but communicated with his client through the surgeon-general of prisons. Just before his death, however, he was seen by Lord Henry Fitz- gerald and an aunt. Lady Louisa Connolly. His remains were interred in the vaults of St. Werburgh's Church, the only persons allowed to attend being Lieutenant Stone, of the Derry militia, who had at- tended him while in prison, by order of the authorities, and an old servant of the Fitzgerald family, named Shiel. The betrayer of Lord Edward Fitzgerald is un- known. Neilson, Eeynolds, and Murphy have been indicated as the probable sources of the information acted upon by Major Sirr. Neilson had dined with his fellow-conspirator, and left him somewhat abruptly. Sirr said he received the information immediately be- fore proceeding to Murphy's house, and that he found the door open. It has been surmised that the door' was intentionally left open by Neilson ; but there are really no reasonable grounds for suspecting either Neilson or Murphy, and this disposition of Irishmen THB UNITED IBISBMEN. 101 to suspect each, other of treachery upon the very slightest grounds is one of the least pleasant features of the national character which the history of the United Irishmen develops. That the information was given by Eeynolds is doubted even by Madden. " Eeynolds," he says, " had a kind of regard and re- spect for Lord Edward ; for we find even the greatest villains frequently manifest an involuntary apprecia- tion of very exalted heroism or virtue. They feel as if they were compelled, in spite of themselves, to reve- rence great and generous qualities like those which Lord Edward possessed. But though Reynolds, pro- bably, would not denounce him himself, nor think it decent to sell a man's blood from whom it was known he had received great and substantial acts of kindness, Eeynolds could have reconciled it to his very peculiarly constituted mind and perverted moral sense to put an acquaintance in whose welfare he felt an interest in the way of doing a stroke of business in his own line, and to enable his protege to pocket a thousand pounds for a little bit of information concerning Lor a Edward's hiding-place on a particular occasion." The secret service accounts of the Castle contain an entry which shows that the informer was neither Neilson, Eeynolds, nor Murphy. Under date June 20th, 1798, is the entry— "F.H. Discovery of L-E.F., 1000/." Madden supposes these initials to mean John Hughes and Lord Edward Fitzgerald ; and there is no doubt that the latter portion of the interpreta- tion is correct. Hughes was a bookseller at Belfast, who gave evidence before the secret committee, but suppressed the fact that be had been arrested for treason at Newry, in October, 1797^ and was liberated 102 THE UNITED IBISHMEN. on bail the same evening. He became bankrupt shortly afterwards, and early in June, 1798, was ar- rested again. Of course, those who believe that, in the secret service accounts, N. means Macnally, may believe that F. stands therein for John ; but, if the F. is a mistake for J., the informer may have been Joel Hulbert, a carver and gilder, and afterwards a toU- coUector on the Monastereven Canal, who, in August, 1S03, informed Major Sirr of an intended meeting of disaffected persons at a house at Kilmainham. Byrne and the brothers Sheares were arrested on the 21st, on the information of the man who had enjoyed the hospitality of Henry Sheares on the pre- ceding evening, and for whose entertainment the daughter of his unsuspecting host had played the harp. The only paper of any consequence that was seized was an unfinished proclamation to the people of Ireland, very violent in its tone, which was found on the writing-desk of John Sheares, and appeared to have been written by him. For several days before the outbreak of the rebellion there was an unusual movement among all classes of the inhabitants of Dublin. Every day clerks were missed from their desks, shop-assistants from their counters, workmen from their places of labour. The air grew thick with rumours of conspiracy and re- bellion. An uneasy feeling, a presentiment of im- pending danger, pervaded all classes. On the 23rd Neilson was arrested in front of Newgate, while re- connoitring that prison, with a view to an attack for the purpose of liberating the United Irishmen confined there, among whom was Lord Edward Fitzgerald. A large body of conspirators was in THE UNITED IBISSMEN. 103 readiness for the attack at a place called the Barley- Fields ; but on receiving information of Neilson's arrest they dispersed. During the evening and the early hours of the night the prevailing uneasiness of the inhabitants of Dublin culminated in the wildest excitement, as persons whose business had called them into the country brought into the city the news that all the roads were intercepted by armed rebels, large bodies of whom were said to be gathering at Santry on the north, and Eathfarnham on the south. Drums beat to arms, trumpets and bugles sounded, troops were in motion, the whole population in a state of ill-suppressed excitement. It was a dark nigbt, and the lamps re- mained unlighted, the men whose duty it was to light them having disappeared, with thousands of others, to join the rebel gatherings at Santry and Eathfarnham. The military arrangements for the defence of the city were so ill-contrived that an attack in force, under able leaders, could scarcely have failed to be successful. The greater part of the troops and yeomanry were massed in Smithfield, a long and wide street, ending on the quays of the Liffey, and intersected by numerous narrow lanes. Sir Jonah Barrington, who was an eye-witness of the scene, and observes that the rebels lost a fine opportunity to cover the field with distinguished corpses, says that the troops " were in some places so completely interwoven that a drag-oon could not wield his sword without cut- ting down a foot soldier ; nor a foot soldier discharge his musket without knocking down a trooper. Five hundred rebels, with long pikes, coming on rapidly in the dark, might without difl&culty have assailed 104 THE UNITED IBI8EMEN. the yeomen at once from five different points All the barristers, attorneys, merchants, bankers, revenue officers, shopkeepers, students of the uni- versity, doctors, apothecaries, and corporators of an immense metropolis, in red coats, with a sprinkling of parsons, all doubled up together amid bullock-stalls and sheep-pens, awaiting in profound darkness (not with impatience) for invisible executioners to despatch them without mercy, was not, abstractedly, a situa- tion to engender much hilarity. Scouts now and then came, only to report their ignorance. A running buzz went round that the vedettes were driven in ; and the reports of distant musketry, like a twitch of electricity, gave a slight but perceptible movement to men's muscles. A few faintly-heard shots on the north side also seemed to announce that the vanguard of the Santry men were approaching."* The night passed without an attack, however, and at daybreak it became known that the plan of the United Irishmen had failed. The mail-coaches had been stopped, some houses burned, and some small military posts attacked or threatened ; but the rebels had not been able to gather in force either at Santry or Eathfarnham. Lord Camden took the precaution, however, of palisading and guarding the bridges, and issued another proclamation, commanding all who had unregistered arms in their possession to surrender them immediately, under the penalty of being sent on board the King's ships, and not to leave their houses between the hours of nine in the evening and five in the morning. * Historical Memoirs of the Irish Eebellion. TSE UNITED IRISHMEN. 105 The moYements of the United Irishmen during the hours of darkness bore traces of the original plan, though they had not accomplished its execution. Within a circle of thirty miles around the capital they had gathered in small bodies, armed chiefly with pikes, and attempted to surprise the military stations and advance upon Dublin. About an hour after midnight a small body surprised the little barrack at Prosperous, seventeen miles from, Dublin, slaughtered its few defenders, and burned the building. A few hours later, a larger force was attacked at KilcuUen by a regiment of dragoons, commanded by General Dundas, and stood so firmly that the assailants were three times repulsed, and at length forced to retreat. A still larger body, numbering about a thousand men, entered Naas without opposition; but being after- wards surprised by Lord Gosford at the head of the Armagh militia and a troop of yeomanry, were driven out of the town with great slaughter, and pursued by the yeomanry until they dispersed over the country. Many prisoners were taken by the victors, and were immediately hanged. On the following day, about two hours after mid- night, a body of twelve hundred United Irishmen entered Carlow, thinking they had surprised the garrison, but were received with such a destructive fire of musketry that they recoiled, and attempted to retreat. Colonel Mahon, who commanded there, had been warned of the attack by an intercepted letter, and had posted a portion of his force so as to cut off the retreat of the rebels, who, finding themselves between two fires, sought refuge in the houses. The town was thereupon fired by the troops, and eighty 106 THE UNITED IBISSMEN. houses were burned, about a hundred persons perish- ing in the flames and suifocating smoke. Two hundred more were made prisoners, all of whom were hanged or shot upon the spot. Sir Edward Croshie, in whose grounds the rebels had mustered, was arrested after the massacre, on the charge of having favoured their design, and tried by court-martial. Though he was a member of the United Irishmen, he had taken no part in the rebellion.; but little evidence was required to con- vince his judges that he ought to be shot, and, while some prisoners were tortured into giving evidence against him, those whose testimony would have been in his favour were forcibly excluded from the Court.* He was condemned to death, and the sentence was immediately executed. His fate excited much sym- pathy among all classes of the people. Small detachments of Fencibles at Dunboyne and Barretstown were routed by the rebels about the same time, but in most cases the desultory attacks on small towns were repulsed. Their numbers increased rapidly, however, and on the 26th a strong position on Tara Hill, in the county of Meath, was occupied by a body of four thousand, who, on a regiment advancing against them, rushed down with such im- petuosity that the troops gave way before them and fled. The charge of the rebel pikemen was quickly changed into a disorderly retreat when they en- countered the fire of artillery ; and the infantry then rallied, charged up the hill, and drove them from their position. This defeat broke the rebel com- * Gordon's History of tlie Irisli Kebellion, TSE UNITED IBISHMEN. 107 munication between Dublin and the north, and the Meath insurgents withdrew into Kildare. As yet the rebellion had not extended beyond the four counties nearest to the capital, but, on the evening of the fight at Tara Hill, the flame was spread to Wexford by the cruel and sacrilegious violence of a troop of yeomanry, who rode into the village of Boolavoyne, near Enniscorthy, and burned the Catholic church, the priest's house, and several farmhouses. The villagers fled in terror to Oulard Hill, an eminence ten miles from "Wexford, and were joined during the night by most of the peasants of the neighbouring county. This movement being regarded as an act of rebellion. Colonel Lehunte, with the yeomanry and a company of Cork militia, marched to Oulard Hill on the following morning, posting his cavalry in the rear of the position to prevent the flight of the peasants, most of whom were armed with pikes, while his infantry advanced up the ascent. The rebels were disposed for flight, but, finding their retreat cut off, attacked the militia with such vigour that they were driven down the hill in disorder, and with fearful slaughter. The yeomanry thereupon fled also, and did not stop until they reached Wexford. The rebels, elated with their unexpected' victory, marched northward, receiving constant augmentations of their force, and encamped on Carrigrew Hill. On the following morning, continuing their march, they entered Camolin, where they seized eight hundred muskets, the possession of which inspired them with the idea of attacking Enniscorthy. They turned southward, therefore, swelled to a force of seven 108 THU UNITED IBI8HMEN. thousand men, flushed with success, and burning for revenge. The defenders of the town made a vigorous defence, but they were overpowered by numbers, and, after a hot fight of four hours, they were driven out, and retired to Wexford. The victorious rebels en- camped on Vinegar Hill, an eminence overlooking the town ; but they were now satisfied with their exploits, and, being destitute of leaders worthy of distinction, allowed the troops to reoccupy Ennis- corthy, and began to disperse. The authorities had, in the meantime, become alarmed, and, after arresting three gentlemen of the neighbourhood on suspicion of being concerned in the rebellion, liberated them on bail, and sent two of them to Yinegar Hill to parley with the rebel leaders. The result of this policy was, that the rebels flocked back to their camp, and Bagenal Harvey, one of the ne- gotiators from Wexford, assumed the command of them. A sally made from Enniscorthy by the troops was repulsed, the colonel of the militia being among the slain, and the military again retreated to Wexford. Reinforcements advancing from Duncannon were sur- prised and routed with great slaughter, near a spur of the Forth mountains, called the Three Eocks, where the rebels captured two guns and made prisoners of an ofiicer and sixteen privates. The remnant fled to Wexford, increasing the alarm created by the defeat at Enniscorthy ; and the town was immediately evacuated, the retreating troops shooting the peasantry, and plundering and burning the farm- houses and cottages along their line of march. Wex- ford was immediately occupied by the rebels, who THE UNITED IBISSMEN. 109 made the town their head-quarters, at the same time maintaining their camp on Vinegar Hill. On the 31st, two bodies of rebels marched from Vinegar Hill, one going northward, and the other taking the road to New Eoss. The former occupied Gorey on the 4th of June, after driving out the troops by whom the town was defended ; and, on the evening of the same day, the western division, commanded by Harvey, encamped on Corbet Hill, within a mile of New Eoss, which was held by General Johnson, with twelve hundred infantry and a troop of yeomanry. At daybreak on the 5th, Harvey sent a flag of truce, with a suinmons to sui'render the town, the possession of which would open to the rebels the counties of Waterford, Carlow, and Kilkenny. The plan was defeated, however, by the indiscipline of the rebels, who, infuriated by the shooting of the bearer of the white flag, charged wildly down the hill, and into the town, driving the defenders before them at point of pike, and chasing them over the bridge into the county of Kilkenny ; but, on the troops rallying, were surprised while plundering and drinking, and driven out in confusion towards Corbet Hill. About three thousand of them were rallied by a brave lad named Lett, who had run from home to join the green flag, under which he led them towards the town under a heavy fire of artillery, which made fearful havoc in their close ranks. Uttering wild cries, the rebels charged into the town, captured the guns, and again drove the defenders over the bridge. This second victory was succeeded, like the former one, by plundering and drinking ; and with the same consequence. The troops were again 110 TEE UNITED IBISSMEN. rallied, and charged into the town, which was now in flames in several places, and, after a desperate conflict, drove the rebels out once more. Harvey withdrew his defeated followers to a hill five miles distant, where they bivouacked among the furze, and saw the greater part of New Eoss reduced to a heap of blackened ruins. Defeat produced dis- sensions among them, and Harvey, being unjustly blamed for the failure of the enterprise, resigned the command, and withdrew from the camp. Fearing to return home, he prowled for some time about the hills and woods, and was at length discovered by some soldiers in a cave, and executed. He was suc- ceeded in the command by a Catholic priest named Eoche, who resolved to march into "Wicklow, form a junction with the bands of United Irishmen who had collected in the hilly districts of that county, and advance in force upon Dublin. On the 9th the rebels, numbering thirty thousand, were before Ark- low, the garrison of which, consisting of a thousand militia and a troop of yeomanry, with four guns, had been hastily reinforced by regular troops, commanded by General Needham. The rebel attack was made with more military skill than could have been ex- pected, about fifteen hundred skirmishers advancino- under cover, and keeping up a well-sustained fire from behind low hedges, while the pikeraen kept out of sight in the rear. Their ammunition soon becom- ing exhausted, a charge was made, the outposts driven in, the yeomanry forced into the river Avoca, an(J a gun dismounted. The pikemen then made a gallant charge, led by a priest named Murphy, and the troops began to waver. At that moment Murphy THE TJNITEB IRISHMEN. Ill was killed by a cannon-sliot, and the rebels aban- doned the attack, and retired in good order to Gorey. The rebellion was, in the meantime, dying out in the counties in which it had commenced. On the same day that the Wexford insurgents marched to the attack of Gorey and New Eoss, two thousand rebels laid down their arms at Knockarvlin, on the border of the Curragh, on the conditions of a full pardon and unmolested return to their homes. Three days later, several hundreds more proceeded for the same purpose, and on similar terms, under agreement with General Dundas, to the Gibbet Eath, on the Curragh, where a body of regulars and yeomanry was drawn up, under the command of Sir James Duff. According to one version of this affair, one of the rebels, before surrendering his musket, fired it into the air, whereupon Duff ordered the troops to fire, and a volley being discharged into their crowded ranks, the insurgents fled precipitately over the plains. According to another version, the troops consisted entirely of cavalry, and Duff, after the arms had been surrendered, ordered the rebels to kneel down, and ask the King's pardon, and then, while they were on their knees, cried out, " Charge, and spare none !" "Whether this version or the other is the correct one is a question of little consequence. The fact remains that the cavalry, the dragoons led by General Hunt, and the yeomanry by Lord Eoden and Captain Bagot, pursued the rebels, cutting them down with- out mercy. The number slain has been variously estimated at from two hundred to three hundred and fifty. General Dundas expressed the utmost abhor- 112 THE UNITED IBISHMEN. rerice of this treacherous and inhuman massacre, but the Irish Parliament voted thanks to Sir James Duff almost unanimously, and Dundas was vehemently- censured during the debate for treating with armed rebels. There were no more offers to surrender after this atrocity. The scattered bands of rebels fled into the woods and hills, and for some weeks maintained a guerilla warfare in Kildare, under a leader named Aylnier, who proved himself a skilful general, and in Wicklow under a young farmer named Holt. The failure of the insurrection around Dublin dis- concerted the arrangements and damped the ardour of the United Irishmen of Ulster, who, though more numerous than those of Leinster, never took the field in numbers one-fourth of those of the county of Wex- ford alone. It was not until after the rising in the south that the northern leaders resolved to move, and then, three days before the day fixed for the outbreak. Dr. Dickson, a Presbyterian minister, who had suc- ceeded Eussell in 1796 as adjutant-general of Down, was arrested, with two of his stafi". The county com- mittee of Down thereupon urged the advisability of deferring action; and, when the county committee of Antrim resolved to raise the United Irishmen of that county on the 7th of June, the adjutant-general, at the last moment, resigned his post. Macracken ac- cepted the vacant appointment, however, and was nominated to the command of the Ulster forces by the executive committee. On the morning of the 17th, a new discouragement presented itself in the insubordination of the officers, many of whom deserted their posts, and Macracken THE UNITED IBI8EMEN. 113 commenced the rebellion in the north with only a hundred men. With this slender force he marched upon Antrim, receiving augmentations on the way, until it was raised to five hundred men, many of whom had served in the Volunteers, and two small brass field-guns. The small garrison of Antrim made a vigorous defence, but, after a sanguinary conflict, the troops and yeomanry were driven out. Lord O'Neill being among the slain. Five hundred United Irishmen, who had marched from Kells and Connor, were approaching Antrim from the north when they perceived the yeomanry, and, mistaking their flight for a charge, were seized with a panic, and precipi- tately retreated. The troops then rallied, and charged into the town, when Macracken's force also became panic-stricken and fled in disorder, pursued by the yeomanry. Macracken was made prisoner, with many more, and immediately tried by court-martial and executed. The Down insurgents took the field on the 9th, assembling near Saintfield, where they were attacked by the York Fencibles, commanded by Colonel Staple- ton. A sanguinary confiict ensued, with heavy loss on both sides, resulting in the occupation of Saint- field by the United Irishmen, and the retreat of the troops to Comber. On the following day the rising became general in the counties of Antrim and Down, and the rebels occupied Newtownardes, and made an unsuccessful attack on Portaferry. On the 11th they entered Ballynahinch, the garrison flying on their approach ; but, on the following day, a rebel force of about six thousand, commanded by a leader named Monroe, was attacked by General Nugent, and forced VOL. I. I 114 TEE UNITED IBI8HMEN. to retreat. The evacuation of Ballynahincli was the consequence of this defeat, and the town was reoccu- pied by the troops. At daybreak on the 12th the rebels advanced, under cover of the fire of their field-guns, and encountered the troops, whom they drove into the town. They then charged, and entered the town under a heavy fire ; but, on the retreat being sounded by order of General ^Nugent, they mistook the notes for a charge, and retreated. The troops then rallied and pursued them, with great slaughter, Monroe in vain endeavour- ing to stay their flight. The victorious troops plun- dered the town, and set fire to the houses, many of which were burned ; and when, two days afterwards, Monroe was captured, tried by court-martial, and executed before his own house, his head was cut ofi", and displayed, on a pike, on the roof of the market- house, in sight of his distressed family.* The rebellion in Ulster ended with this defeat, and on the 20th Lord Cornwallis, who had just before succeeded Lord Camden in the vice-royalty, issued a proclamation assuring protection to all who, being guilty of rebellion only, should, within fourteen days, lay down their arras, abjure all unlawful engagements, and take the oath of allegiance. The insurrection was now reduced to a guerilla war- fare in the counties of Wexford, Wicklow, and Kil- dare ; and in the two latter the rebels concealed themselves by day in the woods, and among the wild fastnesses of the hills, whence they issued by night to harry the loyal inhabitants. In the more southern * Teeling. TRB UNITEB IBI8HMEN. 115 county tbey held the towns of Wexford and Ennis- corthy, and maintained their position on Vinegar Hill. On the 20th a body of rebels, among whom were a priest and many women, crossed the long wooden bridge at Wexford, and demanded the execu- tion of the prisoners detained there, by way of reprisal for the almost daily shooting and hanging of captured rebels by the regular troops and the yeomanry. Nearly a hundred captives are said to have been piked, and thrown from the bridge into the Slaney ; but the massacre was stayed by the arrival of a mounted messenger, who announced that the camp at Vinegar Hill was beset by the enemy. Greneral Lake had moved all the force at his disposal to the neighbourhood of Enniscorthy, with the intention of making a combined attack on the town and the camp. At daybreak on the 21st, General Johnson attacked the former position, which was obstinately defended by a leader named Fitz- gerald ; while Greneral Lake, with the main body of troops in four columns, attempted to storm the camp. During two hours the rebels stood firm under a furious cannonade, and their pikemen made several gallant charges, by which the assailants were driven down the hill ; but the latter gradually gained ground, and at length reached the summit, when the rebels broke and fled. Edward Eoche, brother of the priest- general, came up with reinforcements from Wexford, only in time to cover the retreat by interposing bis force between the flying rebels and the pursuing cavalry. Greneral Johnson entered Enniscorthy at the same time, making a fearful slaughter of the rebels, the Hessian mercenaries even shooting the I 2 116 TEE UNITED IRISHMEN. sick and wounded in their beds in the hospital, which was set on fire by the burning wads igniting the bed- clothes. Those who had escaped the shots of the Hessians expired by suffocation.* Wexford had been invested at the same time, and escape by sea cut off by a blockading force of gun- boats. The successful defence of the place being hopeless, Lord Kingsborough, who had been captured by the rebels while crossing the harbour in a sailing- boat, was released from prison, and an offer made to surrender the town to him, on condition of protection to life and property. Lord Kingsborough accepted the surrender on those terms, but General Lake refused to ratify the capitulation, and the inhabitants were dreading a massacre and the burning of the town, when Sir John Moore marched in from Taghmon with a large force, and relieved them from their fears. The rebels who had been driven from Vinegar Hill bivouacked at Three Eocks, and on the following day divided into two bodies, one of which marched north- ward into Wicklow, and the other westward into Carlow, and thence into Kilkenny. On the 24th the western division captured and burned Castlecomer, and then turned back, and encamped on Kilcomney Hill. On the 26th their camp was surrounded, during a thick fog, by a strong body of troops ; but, some of them being better acquainted than their pursuers with the country, they escaped through SeoUogh Gap, and re-entered Wexford. They then dispersed, a few joining the band of Holt in Wicklow. The northern division, led by Fitzgerald and Edward * Gordon. THE UNITBB IRISHMEN. 117 Eoclie, roamed about the hills for a few weeks longer, when most of them joined Aylmer in Kildare. The skill which Aylmer and Holt displayed in eluding the troops, the difficulty which the latter experienced in tracking their bands through the lonely passes of the mountains, and the harassing nature of a service which threatened to be intermi- nable, at length induced the Government to pardon them and their followers, and allow the latter to return unmolested to their homes, on the condition oftheir laying down their arms, and the chiefs leaving the country. This arrangement was negotiated on the 12th of July, by which time the rebellion was completely suppressed, and the trials of the leaders of the United Irishmen were commencing. Aylmer entered the military service of Austria, in which his soldierly qualities procured him rapid promotion. Many years afterwards, on an application being made to the Austrian Government for the assistance of an able officer in the reorganisation of the British cavalry, Aylmer was recommended for the service ; but, on his antecedents being made known to the War Office, the offer was declined. He afterwards served under Bolivar in the War of Independence in South America, and died in the service of Colombia. The first of the conspirators who were brought to trial in Dublin were the brothers Sheares, against whom the chief witness was Captain Armstrong, the only other evidence of any importance being the pro- clamation found on John's writing-desk. It was past midnight, however, before the examination of the witnesses was concluded, and Curran, who defended the prisoners with his usual ability, applied for an 118 TEE UNITUD IRISHMEN. adjournment, on the ground of physical inability to do justice to his clients after standing thirteen hours in a crowded court, on a hot day in July. The judge con- sulted the attorney-general, Toler, afterwards Lord Norbury, who, with characteristic brutality, refused his assent. Between seven and eight o'clock on the following morning, when they had been nearly twenty- three hours in their box, the worn-out jury retired to consider their verdict, and in seventeen minutes pro- nounced a conviction. John Sheares made an earnest appeal on behalf of his brother, pleading that, at least, the execution of the sentence might be deferred for a few days, and that he might in the meantime be per- mitted to see his wife and children; but the inhuman Toler interposed with a demand that "execution be done upon the prisoners to-morrow." Both the condemned men were accordingly executed on the following day, without any member of the family being allowed to see them. Their remains were interred in the family vault in St. Michael's Church, Dublin. Macann, the secretary of the Leinster provincial committee, was tried four days afterwards, convicted on the evidence of the informer Reynolds, and exe- cuted on the 1 9th ; though, according to Reynolds, the information upon which all the arrests of the 12th of March were made was given on the condition of the lives of the accused being spared. Byrne and two of the Leinster delegates were tried on the day after Macanns execution, and Bond on the 23rd. Curran, who defended them all with unswerving courage, was frequently interrupted whUe addressing the jury by the soldiers who guarded the court clanging THE UNITE B IRISHMEN. 119 their muskets on the floor, and not a day passed without his receiving anonymous letters, threatening him with death if he said anything to the discredit of the Grovernment. All the prisoners were convicted, chiefly on the evidence of Reynolds, and sentenced to death ; but the execution of the sentences was de- ferred, and it has been suggested that Eeynolds may have insisted upon the Government adhering to the condition on which he had given information, and thus caused them to hesitate. There is no evidence of this, however, and no other evidence than Eey- nolds's own assertion, as recorded by his son, that such a stipulation was made. On the other hand, there is the evidence of Arthur O'Connor, in his letter to Lord Castlereagh, that it was intimated to him, to induce him to make a statement, that the Privy Council was divided in sentiment on the subject of the executions, and that Bond's life would be spared if the required statement was made. On the day preceding Bond's trial, a gentleman named Dobbs, a Liberal member of the Irish Par- liament, and formerly an officer of the Volunteers, attempted to mediate with the Government on behalf of the prisoners. Lord Castlereagh consented to stay the further exercise of the hangman's office, on the condition that the prisoners should make a full dis- closure of the conspiracy, with the names of all the parties concerned. An undertaking in this sense was drawn up, and submitted to Neilson, who refused to sign it, but expressed willingness, on tlie part of him- self and others, to give full information concerning the arms, ammunition, and schemes of warfare of the United Irishmen, and to consent to leave Ireland, 1-20 THE UNITED IRISHMEN. provided the lives of Bond and Bjrne should be spared. Lord Castlereagh accepted this alternative, and an agreement was prepared in accordance with Neilson's proposition, and signed by all the United Irishmen in custody, with the exception of O'Connor, Emmet, and Macnevin, who, on its being submitted to them on the 24th, by Dobbs and the Sheriff of Dublin, refused their adhesion, not only from un- willingness to enter into any conditions with the Government, but because they thought no object which was not general could justify them in entering into such a compact, and because the probability of its being attributed to a desire to save their own lives constituted an insuperable objection, if there had been no other. They thought, too, that to save the lives of Bond and Byrne enough had signed their self-sacrifice to induce the Ministers, already sated with blood, as Lords Castlereagh and Clare had declared themselves to be, to dispense with their signatures.* The refusal of the chiefs to sign the amended document was followed by Byrne's execution, after' which O'Connor, anxious to save Bond, who was his intimate friend, and had been led by him into the conspiracy, and learning that the Council had been divided in sentiment, and that his compliance would save Bond's life, consented to meet Lord Castlereagh, for the purpose of arranging terms with the Govern- * These are the motives assigned by O'Connor himself, in the letter to Lord Castlereagh, which was taken from him in prison, but which found its way into O'Connor's journal, and subsequently into a volume of extracts therefrom, published with the title of " Beauties of the Press." Feargus O'Connor had a copy of this work, which he believed to be the only one in existence. TEE UNITEB IRISHMEN. 121 ment. As a precaution against misrepresentation, he stipulated that Emmet and Macnevin should he present during the interview, and that they should have the right of publishing whatever took place. This was assented to, and Lord Clare and Cooke accompanied Lord Castlereagh on the part of the Government. When they were all assembled, O'Connor demanded that he should not be required to sign any conditions, but that he should be brought to trial. To this Castlereagh would not assent, and O'Connor then endeavoured to make the terms as wide as he could. He observed that, as the information he could give might be made the ground of a charge of constructive treason, he should withhold it unless he was assured that no more lives would be sacrificed. Lord Clare observed that, if his advice had been followed, every United Irishman would have been prosecuted for treason ; to which O'Connor replied that he must then have prosecuted the people of Ireland to extermination, as nearly the whole of them were affiliated to the asso- ciation. Lord Castlereagh assured him that no more lives should be taken for any acts hitherto done in the Union, except for murder ; and to that exception O'Connor assented. Castlereagh then asked if it was to be understood that the information to be given, under the compact to be entered into, was to be given as that of the accused present, or whether they insisted upon its being general, without their names being mentioned ; to which the reply was, that they insisted upon the right of publishing the whole of the informa- tion given, and of refuting any misrepresentations which might be made. 122 THB UNITED IRISHMEN. O'Connor wished to complete the transaction in the presence of Lord Cornwallis, but Castlereagh objected, assuring him at the same time that the honour of the Viceroy was pledged for the per- formance of the agreement, and Lord Clare said : " It comes to this, either you must trust the Govern- ment, or the Government must trust you. A Govern- ment which would violate engagements thus solemnly made neither could stand nor would deserve to stand." Upon the faith of these representations, the following agreement was drawn up, and signed by seventy- three prisoners, including O'Connor, Emmet, and Macnevin : — " That the undersigned State prisoners, in the prisons of Newgate, Kilmainham, and Bridewell, engage to give every information in their power of the whole of the internal transactions of the United Irishmen, and that each of the prisoners shall give detailed information of every transaction that has passed between the United Irishmen and foreign States; but that the prisoners are not, by naming or describing, to implicate any person whatever, and that they are ready to emigrate to such country as shall be agreed on between them and Government, and give security not to return to this country with- out the permission of the Government, and not to pass into an enemy's country ; if, on their so doing, they are to be freed from prosecution, and also Mr. Oliver Bond be permitted to take the benefit of this proposal. The State prisoners also hope that the benefit of this proposal may be extended to such per- sons in custody or not in custody as may choose to benefit by it." TEE UNITE!) IRISHMEN. 123 The last sentence was added to mark that more was stipulated for than could be expressed. Pursuant to this agreement, O'Connor, Emmet, and Macnevin drew up a memoir, giving an account of the origin, principlesj conduct, and views of the United Irish- men, which they signed and delivered to Lord Castle- reagh on the 4th of August. Two days afterwards Cooke went to the prison, and, after acknowledging that the memoir was a perfect performance of the agreement on the part of the accused, said that Lord Cornwallis objected to it that it was a vindication of the United Irishmen and a condemnation of the Grovernment, on which account he could not receive it, and wished it to be altered. This the prisoners refused, saying that it was all true, and it was the truth they were pledged to deliver. Cooke then asked them whether, if the Government published only portions of the memoir, they would refrain from publishing it entire; to which they replied that, • having stipulated for the liberty of publication, they should use that right when and in the manner they deemed proper. Cooke observed that, in that case, the Grovernment would have to hire persons to answer them, and he supposed the United Irishmen would reply, so that a paper war would be carried on without end. Finding that the prisoners would not allow the memoir to be garbled, the Government determined to examine them before a secret committee, and thus attain the object in the report. When the inquiry was complete, and alter Macnevin had twice com- plained of the delay of the Government to carry out the agreement, Cooke visited the prisoners and told 124 TEE UNITED IBISEMEN. them they were at liberty to go where they pleased, provided they left the British dominions, and that whatever concerned them afterwards would be secured by an Act of Parliament, adding that nothing re- mained but to settle the nature of the accommodation which they required to enable them to dispose of their property prior to their departure. The com- mittee had not then reported, but the Ministerial journals had anticipated the report by publishing statements concerning the disclosures made by the prisoners, which the latter asserted to be scurrilous falsehoods ; and the Bill referred to by Cooke set forth in its preamble that they had " confessed themselves conscious of flagrant and enormous guilt, expressed contrition, and humbly implored mercy, on condition of being transported, banished, or exiled to such foreign country as to his Majesty in his royal wisdom shall seem fit." Neilson immediately wrote to liord Castlereagh, protesting against these terms, and at the same time • sent to the Courier a copy of the compact, with a letter declaring that he and his fellow-prisoners had neither acknowledged a crime, retracted an opinion, nor implored pardon, adding that their object was to stop the effusion of blood. Two hours after the letter to Lord Castlereagh, which enclosed a copj' of the other, had been sent, Cooke and another Castle official entered his cell, and the former told him he had lost his judgment, and that Lord Comwallis would consider the publication of the letter as an infraction of the agreement, and that executions would go on as before. Neilson refused to retract. TSE UNITES IRISHMEN. 125 and Cooke, after repeating the Lord-Lieutenant's threat, left him. Notwithstanding the assurance given by Cooke on the 18th of August, the prisoners were not released. On the 25th of September O'Connor wrote to Lord Cornwallis, demanding the fulfilment of the engage- ment to which Lord Castlereagh had pledged him ; and on the 31st of October he received a letter from Cooke, informing him that the prisoners would be required to emigrate to America, and to give security not to return to Europe. This was a direct violation of the written compact which Lord Clare had said no Government could violate and stand, or deserve to stand, but even this modification of the terms was not carried out. Six weeks more passed, and a memorandum was received in the handwriting of Lord Castlereagh, stating that O'Connor, Emmet, Macnevin, Neilson, and eleven others could not then be liberated, owing to a lamentable change of circum- stances ; but that the rest of the prisoners named in the Banishment Act would be permitted to retire to any neutral State, giving security not to pass into an enemy's country, and that the like indulgence would be extended to the excepted prisoners as soon as regard for the public safety rendered that course possible. In the meantime, a tardy attempt had been made to fan the dying embers of the rebellion into a flame. Wolfe Tone was called, early in July, to a con- sultation with the French Ministers of War and Marine, and it was agreed to despatch several small expeditions to Ireland as rapidly as they could be 126 THE UNITED IRISHMEN. prepared, to revive the rebellion and distract the British Government, pending the sailing of a larger force under General Kilmaine. In accordance with this arrangement, General Humbert landed at Killala on the 22nd of August, at the head of a thousand men and a few light guns, and accompanied by Matthew Tone, Teeling, and another Irishman, named Sullivan. Killala was occupied without re- sistance, and on the following morning the invaders marched to Ballina, a few miles southward. The ■ garrison fled, after a very slight resistance, and Hum- bert left a small force in the town, and returned to Killala. The peasants of the district flocked to Humbert's standard, and a thousand of them were armed with muskets brought from France for the purpose. With this augmented force he marched on the 26th to Castlebar, where General Lake had arrived in haste, with six thousand men, well provided with artillery. Early on the following morning, the rebels and their Trench allies found themselves, after a fatiguing march of fifteen hours, confronted with the British troops, strongly posted before Castlebar. After a half-hour's skirmishing, the British, though more than three times as numerous as the force opposed to them, fled in disorder, abandoning their artillery and a large quantitj^ of arms, ammunition, and military stores and baggage of every description. The cause of Lake's defeat seems to be revealed in the fact that a large proportion of his force consisted of Irish militia, who made a feeble resistance, throwing down their arms, and being made prisoners by hundreds. Nearly the whole of these prisoners, belonging chiefly THB UNITED IRISEMEN. 127 to the Louth and Kilkenny militia, immediately joined the forces of Humbert. Lord Cornwallis took the field a few days after- wards with a large force, and all the disposable troops in Ireland moved towards Connaught. On the 4th of September Humbert evacuated Castlebar, to avoid being hemmed in, and made a rapid march towards Leitrim, influenced by a rumour of an insurrectionary movement in Longford. He was surrounded by Lord Cornwallis's forces, thirty thousand strong, however, at Ballinamuck, in the county of Longford, and, after a slight resistance, surrendered. Sullivan, who had lived some years in France, saved himself by assuming the character of a French officer; but Tone and Teeling were sent, handcuffed, to Dublin, where they were tried by court-martial, and executed. Most of the Irish prisoners experienced the same fate. Napper Tandy, and between twenty and thirty other Irish refugees in France, embarked about the same time, in a small fast-sailing vessel, for the north of Ireland, to share the fortunes of those who had preceded them. They landed on the island of Bathlin, but, on hearing of Humbert's surrender, re-embarked, and shaped their course for Norway. On the 20th, the news of the failure of Humbert's expedition not having reached France, Greneral Hardy sailed from Brest with three thousand men, and after a long and tedious voyage, owing to adverse winds, anchored ofi" the entrance of Lough S willy on the 10th of October. Wolfe Tone, who with three other United Irishmen, accompanied the expedition, had no faith in these desultory and inefii- cient enterprises, but, seeing no hope of Kilmaine's 128 TEE UNITBB IBIBSMUN. expedition being ready in time to be of any service to the Irish cause, threw himself into this final effort as a forlorn hope. It was, in truth, a desperate enterprise. The abortive movement in Ulster had been crushed, and the dawn of the ITth showed a superior naval force, under the command of Sir John Borlase Warren, bearing down upon the French ships, as they were preparing to sail up the Lough. Escape was impos- sible, unless by victory ; the French made a gallant resistance, fighting until their ships were dismasted and riddled with shot, when the tricolour was at length lowered, and the survivors became prisoners of war. Tone escaped observation in the uniform of a French officer until some days after the action, when Sir George Hill, who had been his fellow-student at Trinity College, and was now a secret agent of the Government, accompanied some police-officers to the north, and pointed Tone out while breakfasting with the Earl of Cavan. He was immediately handcuffed, and hurried off to Dublin, where, after being kept in suspense as to his fate for nearly a month, he was tried by court-martial and condemned to death. He delivered an eloquent speech in vindication of his conduct, without any hope of averting his fate, and made an earnest appeal to the court to be spared the degrading contact of the hangman. Lord Cornwallis, in confirming the sentence, disregarded this appeal, and Tone was ordered for execution on the 12th of November, being the second day after the trial. The prisoner had many influential friends, and a great efi'ort was made to save him. On the morning fixed for his execution, Curran, his early and constant THE UNITED IBI8SMEN. 129 friend, applied to Lord Kilwarden, sitting in the Court of King's Bench, for a writ of habeas corpus, on the ground that, the rebellion having been suppressed, and Tone holding no commission in the British army, the application of martial law was in his case illegal. Lord Kilwarden issued the writ, which was imme- diately conveyed to the barrack in which Tone was confined, it being feared that the prisoner would be hanged before execution could be stayed. Some delay was occasioned by the refusal of the provost and Major Sandys, the commandant, to obey the writ ; upon which the judge ordered the sheriff to take Major Sandys and the provost into custody, and bring up the prisotier by force. The excitement in and around the Court now became terrible. Another brief period of painful suspense intervened, and then the sheriff returned with the announcement that he had been refused admission into the prisoner's cell, but was informed that he had cut his throat at an early hour that morning, and could not be moved. Dr. Len- taigne, a French emigrant of the medical profession, accompanied the sheriff to the Court, and supple- mented the announcement of that official with the further information that he had been called at four o'clock to Tone's cell, and found that he had severed his windpipe with a penknife. There was, he added, little hope of the prisoner's recovery, and, in the mean- time, a sentry had been placed over him to prevent him from speaking. The sensation produced by this announcement was most painful, the suspicions which arose upon it dark and terrible. It was believed by many that Tone had been murdered, and the conduct of the military autho- VOL. I. K. 130 THE UNITED IRISHMEN. rities went far to justify them. So many atrocities had been perpetrated by the ruling faction in Ireland that the people may be excused their belief that Tone was slain to prevent his surrender to the civil power. But where there is only a suspicion of guilt, the ac- cused must have the benefit of the doubt. Tone was known to have had an intense horror of the personal indignity attending death at the hands of the hang- man, and Dr. Lentaigne asserted that he remarked, as well as he was able to articulate, whilst receiving his assistance, that he had found that he was a bad anato- mist. It is probable, therefore, that he committed suicide to avoid being hanged. Though he hovered between life and death until the lyth, he could not be moved from his cell, and, according to Harwood, was seen only by Dr. Lentaigne and the soldier who guarded him ; but Madden states that a gentleman named Fitzpatrick was allowed to see him. Only two persons were allowed to attend his funeral, the authorities nominating for that sad duty a relative named Dunbavin, and a Dublin brazier, named Ebbs. His remains were interred in the old cemetery of Bodenstown, close by the wall, on the south side of the ruined abbey, in the familj^ vault, which had so short a time before closed over those of his brother Matthew. Many years after his death a slab was placed near the grave, bearing the inscrip- tion : — " Sacred to the memory of Theobald "Wolfe Tone, who died for Ireland on the lyth of November, 1798." Order was now re-established in Ireland, such order at least as can exist when the foundations of the TSE UNITED IRISHMEN. 131 social edifice are cemented with blood. It was not, howeYer, until tlie 1 8tli of March, 1799, that any change was made in the condition of the political prisoners whose compact with Lord Castlereagh had been so basely violated by the Government. They then received notice that they were to go on board one of the King's ships early on the following morn- ing ; whether to be conveyed to a foreign port, or to Botany Bay, or to be thrown overboard at sea, they were not told. Neilson, who was prostrated by inter- mittent fever, protested ; but in vain. Bond, to save whose life they had consented to expatriate them- selves, was now dead, and his mortal remains lying near those of the brothers Sheares. In the grey dawn of an early spring morning they were removed as privately as. possible to a vessel lying in the Liffey, which immediately put to sea. On the 14th of April they arrived at Fort George, on the southern shore of the Moray Firth, where they were detained in cap- tivity more than three years longer — nainely, until the 30th of June, 1802, when they were liberated, and allowed to proceed to the Continent. On their arrival at Cuxhaven they separated, O'Connor going direct to Paris, and Emmet to Brus- sels, while Macnevin made the tour of Germany and Switzerland, proceeding to Paris in the autumn. Communications between Macnevin and Talleyrand, with a view to another French invasion of Ireland, commenced almost immediately, but were not ap- proved by Emmet, as peace then existed between France and Britain ; but the latter's objection seems to have applied only to the time being, as he expressed k2 132 THE UNITED IRISHMEN. to a friend his intention of going to America with Macnevin, " unless some change shall take place that would in hoth cases reverse all our calculations." Emmet proceeded to Paris in the spring of 1803, where his brother Robert, then in his twenty-fifth year, with Macnevin and Eussell, had already begun drawing together the broken threads of the conspiracy of 1798. O'Connor informed Madden in 1842 that "there were persons who were opposed to him who had com- munications with France, and this party was reorganised in Paris in 1803. Their plans were connected with Eobert Emmet's plot, but were not communicated to him (O'Connor) ; they were divulged to him by the French Grovernment. The person in this party in Paris who had most influence was Eussell. Buonaparte, in conversing with General O'Connor, expressed him- self unfavourably of the attempt and of those engaged in it.'- The design of this new conspiracy was based on the anticipation of a speedy rupture between Prance and Britain, and the impression, derived from an interview with Buonaparte and frequent communi- cations with Talleyrand, that an invasion of England would be attempted in the summer of 1 803. Assurances of support were received from influential persons in Ireland, and as early as October, 1802, Eobert Emmet proceeded to that country, via Holland. On his arrival in Dublin, ostensibly on private business, young Emmet communicated with the United Irishmen who were still at large and who had taken an active part in the rebellion, and " some very influential persons who were cognisant of all the pro- ceedings of the leaders, and who promoted their views TEE UNITED IRISHMEN. 133 and directed their movements behind the curtain."* Among the former were Colonel Lumm, Bernard Duggan, and an attorney named Gray, who had been Harvey's aide-de-camp at the battle of New Ross, and one of the Wicklow rebels, named Dwyer ; and among the latter Madden indicates by initials Fitz- gerald, brother of the Knight of Glin, and Lord Wycombe, eldest son of the Marquis of Lansdowne. "War between Britain and France was renewed in March, 1803, and Emmet immediately commenced his preparations for revolt. Money was supplied for arras, ammunition, &c., by a provision - merchant named Long, a member of the Dublin firm of Eoche and Co., who was intimately acquainted with the Emmets, and probably by some of the influential persons alluded to by Madden. Houses were taken in Thomas Street, Patrick Street, Wine Tavern Street, and Marshalsea Lane, for the manufacture and storage of arms and ammunition, and forty men employed in making pikes, cartridges, grenades, and rockets. The rockets — missiles then almost unknown — were made by a dyer named Macdonnell, who had some know- ledge of chemistry, but was so careless that he smoked while at work, and one day, while so engaged, ignited some fuses, causing an explosion wbich attracted the attention of the authorities, and caused the house to be searched by Major Sirr, without, however, any discovery being made. The old difference of opinion as to the expediency of an insurrection unaided by France again distracted the councils of the conspirators on its becoming * Madden. 134 THE UNITED IBISHMEN. doubtful whether aid would be given, aud there were also dissensions at this time as to whether Ireland, in the event of success, should be declared a separate and independent republic, or become a dependency of Erance. Buonaparte recommended the appointment of a commission to make provisional arrangements, and wished O'Connor and Emmet to be members; but the latter had little faith in the First Consul, and he and O'Connor already regarded each other with reserve and distrust. O'Connor seems to have been still disposed to rely upon French aid, while Emmet retained the contrary view. Sanguine reports of pro- gress were received from Eobert Emmet, and EusseU went over to Ireland to take part in the organisation of the revolt. Eobert Emmet continued hopeful of success until within an hour of the collapse of the enterprise. His dep6ts were filled with arms and ammunition, and he had no doubt that men to use them would be forth- coming when the signal was given for action. His strategical arrangements were ably designed, and he had in store nine thousand pikes, and, though muskets were few, sixty-two thousand cartridges, besides rockets and grenades. There would have been more muskets but for the dishonesty of a man whom he sent for some cases which had been contracted for, and who absconded with the money entrusted to him to pay for them. There were not many men enrolled in Dublin for the enterprise, but his lieutenants were to bring in thousands from Wicklow, Kildare, and Wexford, and he had no doubt that the masses of the capital would rise at the first shot. On the 23rd of July a council was held at Long's THE UNITED IBI8IIMEN. 135 house, mounted messengers having previously been despatched to warn the leaders of the expected contin- gents that the rising would take place that night. But the resolution was no sooner taken than every- thing seemed to conspire against its execution. The messenger who was sent to warn Dwyer lost heart, and proceeded no fartlier than Eathfarnham. The Kildare men came in, but being informed by a traitor to the cause that the rising had been postponed, returned to their homes. Between two and three hundred Wexford men also reached the post assigned to them, and a large body of Dublin men assembled at the Broadstone awaiting the signal rocket ; but the signal for action was not given. At nine o'clock Emmet seems to have become doubtful of success, only eighty men having joined him at the rendezvous in Marshalsea Lane ; but at that moment a man rushed in with the intelligence, which proved to be false, that a large body of troops was advancing towards the place, and this caused Emmet to decide upon instant action at all risks. He put on his green uniform, and ordered the arms to be distributed, and a signal rocket fired. The stores were all in confusion, however, and the fuses for the rockets could not be found. The scaling ladders were also invisible, only one being discovered. Emmet sallied into Thomas Street with his eighty followers, however, and at Bicker Street was joined bj about eighty more, many of whom were more or less intoxicated. They proceeded in a disorderly manner towards the Castle, but they were not clear of Thomas Street when the stragglers in the rear began rioting and plundering. Emmet called a halt for the 136 TSJE UNITED IBISHMEN. purpose of endeavouring to restore order, and, being informed that Lord Kilwarden's carriage was stopped by the rearguard, and that the aged judge and his nephew were being murdered, he hastened to the rear. Lord Kilwarden and his nephew were stretched in their blood on the road, and the judge's daughter was trembling in a corner of the carriage. Emmet immediately conducted the young lady to a place of safety, and hurried to the head of the column, where all was now noise and confusion. The object of the enterprise seemed to have become lost sight of, by all but the leaders, in the desire to drink, shout, and plunder. "While a vain attempt to attain some degree of order and discipline was being made, a company of infantry appeared at the corner of Cutpurse Eow, and fired a volley into the rioters' broken ranks. The latter immediately fled in all directions, a second volley accelerating their flight. Emmet disappeared in the confusion, and, with several more, reached the house of a dairyman named Devlin, who was related to Dwyer, and implicated in the plot. On the following night they fled into the Wicklow mountains, where they found Dwyer and his contingent eager for revolt ; but Emmet was now convinced of the hopelessness of success, and resolved to return to France. He was unwilling to leave Ireland, however, without an interview with Curran's sister, whom he was engaged to marry, and, with this object in view, he returned to a former hiding-place at Harold's Cross. Devlin's house had been sur- rounded by the military on the morning after his departure, and searched by a brutal magistrate, who ordered the dairyman's daughter to be tortured until THE VNITEV IRISHMEN. 137 she revealed the place of Emmet's concealment. The hapless young woman was pricked with bayonets until she was covered with blood, threatened with instant death, and hanged until she became insensible, when she was lowered to the ground and the noose relaxed. Still refusing to betray Emmet, she was removed to Dublin, and lodged in gaol. On the 25th of August, Major Sirr presented him- self at the house at Harold's Cross in which Emmet still lingered, and, entering the room in which the rebel chief, who was unknown to him, was sitting, inquired his name. Emmet gave the name of Cun- ningham, upon which Sirr, after taking the precaution of leaving a man to guard him, proceeded to question the occupier, who gave the guest's name as Hewitt. The discrepancy convinced Sirr that he had found the man he was seeking, and Emmet strengthened the conviction by attempting to escape. He was knocked down, however, by the man who was guarding him, and Sirr, having procured a military guard, proceeded to question Emmet's hostess. While thus engaged, a scuffle was heard, and, on rushing to the back of the house, he saw Emmet flying across the fields. Sirr gave chase, and Emmet, finding that he would be run down, surrendered. He was then taken to the Castle, where he admitted his identity with the leader of the abortive insurrection. An attempt to procure his escape by bribing one of the warders of the prison in which he was confined failed, escape being found impracticable without the connivance of a large number of persons, and he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death on the 19th of September. His eloquent speech is well known, 138 THE UNITED IRISHMEN. having been reprinted frequently, and probably read more extensively than any other production of its kind. Strenuous efibrts were made to procure a com- mutation of the sentence, but the Grovernment was inexorable, and he was executed on the following morning. Eussell also suffered death, and then the leaders of the United Irishmen were reduced to O'Connor, Macnevin, and the elder Emmet. Neilson, long suffering from ill-health, had gone to America only to die, his death taking place at Poughkeepsie, a little town on the Hudson, while Robert Emmet was in hiding at Harold's Cross. Tandy died the same year at Bordeaux. He had had some narrow escapes since his adventure of 1798. On landing in JSTorway, he set out to return to Paris, but was arrested at Hamburg on the demand of the British Minister there, and sent to Dublin, where he was held in custody until the 12th of February, 1800. He was then tried, and had the rare good fortune to be acquitted. Fourteen months afterwards, however, he was re-arrested at Lifford, and tried for landing in arms on the island of Rathlin in 1798. Of this he was convicted, and he would have been hanged if Buonaparte had not interposed, on the ground of his holding a General's commission in the French army, with the threat of breaking off the negotiations for peace unless he was pardoned. The British Govern- ment was fain to yield, but some pretext was found to retain Tandy in custody until Lord Cornwallis was succeeded in the vice-royalty of Ireland by Lord Hardwicke, who contended that he was not bound by the promise of his predecessor, and determined to TEE UNITED IBI8RMEN. 139 send the prisoner to Botany Bay. Tandy's son threatening to publish the official correspondence on the subject, the Government offered to let the prisoner escape on the way, urging that they merely desii-ed, as a matter of policy, to create the belief that he had not been pardoned. This oJBfer being rejected, they proposed that he should undertake to reside either in Portugal or the United States ; but young Tandy would consent to nothing less than the literal fulfil- ment of the condition, and his father was at length liberated and allowed to return to France. Emmet left France in the autumn of 1804, and commenced a long and successful career at the bar of the United States. He was appointed to the Attorney- Greneralship of the State of New York in 1812, and died in 1827. A monument to his memory stands in the principal street of New York. Macnevin obtained high repute as a physician, and resided in New York until his death, which took place in 1841. O'Connor's career, subsequently to his expatriation, I will tell in the words of his nephew, the late Feargus O'Connor, some time Parliamentary representative of Not- tingham, " My uncle," he says, " became Greneral of a Division under Napoleon, and some short time after, when Napoleon, wished to divert the English mind, he sent an immense number of troops to Calais, of which my uncle was commander-in-chief. The impression upon my uncle's mind was that those troops were to invade Ireland. However, upon one occasion. Marshal Soult arrived at Calais, and told my uncle that the army he commanded was sent there for the mere purpose of alarming England, while Napoleon's intention was 140 TEB UNITED IRI8EMEN. not to invade Ireland. Upon hearing this announce- ment, my uncle started for Paris, and threw his commission in Napoleon's face. Subsequently, Napo- leon offered him the command of the army which was to invade Spain, and which was commanded by Massena. My uncle, however, refused the commis- sion, stating that, as he had struggled for the liberty of his own country, he would not be a party to destroying the liberty of any other people. " He subsequently proposed for Napoleon's sister, •who married Murat. Napoleon gave his consent, but when the fact was announced to Carnot, then the Prime Minister of Napoleon, Carnot told him that O'Connor was too ambitious a man, and that he had better retract his consent ; and Carnot's desire was complied with. Some short time after Napoleon had withdrawn his consent, David, the celebrated French artist of that day, was taking a full-length likeness of my uncle, in his Greneral's uniform. When the like- ness was nearly completed, the Marchioness of Con- dorcet took her only child, a girl of about twelve years of age, to have her likeness taken by the same artist. My uncle was one of the handsomest men in the kingdom, and when the young girl saw his like- ness she fell desperately in love with it, and said she should like to see the original. David told them that if they came next day at a particular hour, they would see the original. The Marchioness and her daughter kept the appointment, and when she saw my uncle she fell desperately in love with him. The Marchioness invited him to her soirees, and in a short time told him that her daughter was so desperately in love with him that she did not know what to do ; TEE UNITED IRISHMEN. 141 whereupon the General recommended her to send her to school to some foreign country for a few years, and then she would get over her affection. She was accordingly sent to school for four or five years, and on her return, when she met my uncle at her mother's, she was, if possible, more attached to him than ever ; and, to make a long story short, they were married, and up to this hour, though he is in his ninetieth year, I do not suppose that any new married couple were ever more devotedly attached to each other than they are." This was written in 1850. It is, I believe, sub- stantially correct, though it may be doubted that Arthur O'Connor literally threw his commission in Napoleon's face, and was afterwards ofiered the com- mand of the army destined for Spain, and promised the hand of the Emperor's youngest sister. He re- signed his command, however, under the circumstances related, and devoted himself to rural pursuits, farming the estate of Begnon, formerly the property of Mirabeau. O'Connor purchased it in 1808, and sub- sequently succeeded to the estates of the Condorcet family. CHAPTEE III". THE PHILADELPHIANS. TTTHILE Buonaparte was negotiating with the • * chiefs of a secret society which aimed at the dismemberment of the British Empire, an association was being organised in France with the object of hurling him from the proud height to which he had climbed, and whence the imperial crown seemed almost within his grasp. At the time when the authority of the Directory passed into his hands as First Consul, there existed at Besan9on an association called the Philadelphic Society, consisting of about sixty members, who, without having any political object in view, were united by the similarity of their dis- positions and tastes. Among the members was General Malet, an able officer, of restless and enter- prising character, who had entered the army at an early age, and commanded the first battalion formed in the department of Jura at the commencement of the wars of the Eevolution. The Philadelphians had existed for some time as a quiet reading and debating society, when Malet, who had lately been removed by Buonaparte from the command at Eome, conceived the idea of making it instrumental in eflfecting the restoration of the Bourbons, an object which he was led to contemplate partly from resentment at having TSE PHILADELPHIANS. 143 been supersedecl, and partly as a means of counter- acting the despotic tendencies of the First Consul's disposition. He did not, however, possess the tact and skill in organisation which such an enterprise required, and he sought amongst his friends and acquaintances for an associate who possessed those qualities, and in whom he could confide. The friend whom he selected for this difficult and dangerous task was an officer named Oudet, who, though only twenty-five years of age, had attained a high military reputation and the rank of lieutenant- colonel. He was the son of respectable parents in the department of the Jura, and had served with distinction in the Vendean war, in the numerous skirmishes of which he had several times been severely wounded. He had received only an ordinary education, but his mind was fertile in resources, quick in estimating the value of circumstances, skilful in combination, and daring and resolute in the execution of his purposes. Being a Freemason, and intimately acquainted with the Masonic system, he resolved to apply his know- ledge of its mysteries to the reorganisation of the Philadelphic Society in conformity with the views entertained by Malet and himself; for Oudet, though a decided republican, had discerned the tendency of every change in the constitution of the executive body since the fall of Robespierre to culminate in an absolute dictatorship, and saw in a constitutional monarchy, on the basis of a national compact with the Bourbons, the only means of counteracting them. In order to conceal the real design of the new organisation, the better to insure eventual success, Oudet invested it with an air of mystery, and gave to 144 TEE FEILABELPniANS. its external aspect something of lUuminism. The ostensible and avowed objects of the Society nnder- went little change, the pretext of the new organisation being the production of a type of moral perfection, the realisation of a grand idea of society and of humanity. Oudet began by inducing all the members to take an oath of secrecy and fidelity, and dividing them into three classes, to each of which he assigned certain duties, defined and regulated by fixed rules. Each class was completely unacquainted with the functions of the class above it, while the whole was so organised as to be ready for action whenever the opportunity for striking a blow should be presented. Oudet, as the founder and chief, wielded an absolute authority, and had the power to concentrate the whole force of the Society upon any given point at will, whenever its growth in numbers should give it the power in the State which he contemplated. As soon as the reorganisation of the Society at Besangon was complete, Oudet undertook the more difficult and dangerous task of introducing the Phila- delphic system into the army, in which he succeeded so well that, in a very short time, three regiments of the line — two of light infantry and one of dragoons — were initiated, without distinction of rank ; and, with a view to preventing any suspicion of their connexion with the Society at Besancon, in the event of dis- covery, they were formed into the afiiliated Society of the Freres Bleus. Emissaries started at the same time for the west and south-east to introduce the Philadelphic system among the peasantry, numbers of whom were initiated, with the same precaution and for the same reason, into the affiliated societies of the TEE PHILABELPHIANS. 145 Miquelets in the Pyrenean departments, the Barbets in the departments of the Alps, and the Bandoliers in Jura and Savoy. The first result of the military affiliations was the conspiracy of September, 1800, concerning which Buonaparte never could obtain any certain infor- mation; and for an obvious reason. Oudet was the centre of many circles, which, though links of one chain, exhibited no apparent connexion, so that all the efforts of the astute and unscrupulous Fouch^ could never discover more than a few trifling rami- fications. Oudet had no direct communication with Arena, and Fouche could not obtain the slightest evidence against him; but he seems to have been suspected by the First Consul, though probably only because he was known to be a decided Eepublican. He was ordered to join his regiment, then in garrison at St. Martin, in the Isle of Ehe, where he was received with a burst of enthusiasm which excited renewed distrust, but led to no discovery. Among the arrested Philadelphians was a captain named Morgan, against whom • the only evidence was that of a man not belonging to the Society, who asserted that he had seen among the trinkets of the accused some of a remarkable form. These were seized, and it was contended by the counsel for .the prosecution that they were the insignia of some secret confederacy dangerous to the State. Morgan was subjected to a rigorous imprisonment, closely interrogated, and threatened with perpetual imprison- ment unless he made the fullest disclosures. He refused to give any explanation, but becoming weary of confinement, and hopeless of liberation, he, it was » VOL. I. I' 146 TEE PHILABBLPEIAN8. supposed, committed suicide. He was found dead in his cell, with his breast bare, and having tattooed upon it the same design as that displayed on the jewels which had led to his arrest. This emblem after- wards became that of the Legion of Honour, the head and device being changed, with which excep- tions the symbol of the Philadelphians became a decoration which every Frenchman was soon to be proud to wear. "My brothers," said Oudet, when he heard of the circumstance, " who could have anti- cipated such a result ? Buonaparte is our accomplice ; and it is the Legion of Honour that will destroy the tyrant."* The conspiracy of Arena was closely followed by that of Carbon and St. Eejant. On the evening of the 34th of December, Paris was thrown into con- sternation by the report of a tremendous explosion, and the rumour that an attempt had been made to assassinate the First Consul, on his way to the opera. It soon became known that a cart containing a barrel had been drawn across the Eue de Nicaise, a narrow street which the First Consul had to pass through on his way from the Tuileries, with the view of obstruct- ing the progress of his carriage ; but that the coach- man had contrived to pass the obstacle at a fast trot, and thus baffled the murderous design with which it had been placed there. At the next moment the barrel exploded, shattering the glass of the Consular carriage, striking down the last man of the escort, wrecking between forty and fifty houses, destroying *_Histoire des Soci^t^s Secretes de TArm^e et deg Conspirations Militaires, attributed to Charles Nodier. THE PHILADJELPSIANS. 147 the lives of eight persons, and injuring nearly thirty others, who were in the street at the time of the explosion. On his return to the Tuileries, Buonaparte met a crowd of public functionaries, who congratulated him on his escape, and to whom he vehemently declared that the attempt on his life was the work of the Jacobins. Neither the nobles, nor the priests, nor the Chouans, had any hand in it. " It is the Sep- tembrisers," he loudly asserted, with impassioned gestures, " those wretches steeped in crime, who are in a state of permanent revolt, in close column, against every form of government. It is the assassins of Versailles, the brigands of the 31st of May, the authors of aU the crimes against governments, who are again at their hellish work. It is the artisans and the journalists, who mingle their passions with their own violent imaginations, who are the authors of all those atrocities. If you cannot chain them, you must exterminate themj there can be no truce with such wretches. France must be purged of such an abomi- nable crew." Fouche stood, during this tirade, in the recess of a window, silent and pale. On being asked why he did not defend his party, he replied : " Let them go on ; I will speak when the proper time arrives. He laughs securely who laughs last." On the following day, in the Council of State, Buonaparte held the same language as he had done on the night of the event. He objected to the proposition of a special commission for the trial of suspected persons, that the process would be too slow, and urged that fifteen or twenty of the leading Jacobins should be executed, L 3 148 THE PEILADELPEIAN8. and about two hundred more deported to Cayenne without trial. Truguet hinted that the priests, not the Jacobins, might be the authors of the plot, but Buonaparte persisted that it was the work of the Eepublicans. The Council yielded to his representa- tions, but, before any measures were taken against the objects of his hatred, Fouch^ discovered that the plot had been concocted by the Royalists. Buona- parte thereupon commanded that no allusion should be made in Touche's report to the affair of the Eue de ISTicaise, in order that the action he had determined to take might be based on the numerous acts of the Jacobins against the public peace. In this sense Fouche made his first report, on which the First Consul based his demand for the transportation of more than a hundred of the leading Eepublicans without trial. It was in vain that Thibaudeau and Eoederer urged, in the Council of State, that there was no evidence of the complicity in the plot of the men of whom he desired to be rid, and that it would be unjust to condemn them unheard and without trial. "It matters not," said the in- exorable despot ; " they will be transported for their share in the massacres in the prisons, for their acces- sion to the revolt of the 31st of May, for the con- spiracy of Babeuf, for all that they have done since, and for all they may still do." The Council yielded, and a hundred and thirty of the First Consul's enemies were transported, without trial, to the pesti- lent swamps of Cayenne. A month afterwards Fouche made a second report, announcing that the horse attached to the infernal machine had furnished a clue to the authors of the plot of the Eue de Nicaise, who TSB PHILABELPHIANS. 149 had been arrested, and proved to be emissaries of the Chouan chief, Georges Cadoudal, named Carbon, St. Eejant, and Limolan, who were subsequently tried and executed. Though there was no evidence to connect Oudet with this plot, and he was not implicated in the con* spiracies for which the Jacobins had been deported, he was too able a man, being also an earnest Eepub- lican, not to be feared j and Buonaparte deprived him of his rank, and ordered him to reside at Menale, a village in Jura,, until he received permission to leave that retirement. Oudet obeyed, and from among the general oflScers who were afl&liated to the Philadelphic Society, and who, in addition to Malet, included Moreau, Lahorie, and Guidal, he chose Moreau to succeed him as chief of the Society, and unfolded to him all the ramifications of his policy and of the Philadelphian system. The motives which induced Moreau to engage in this conspiracy were not sufficiently known by his- contemporaries to inspire the hope that they will ever become matter of authentic history. That the hero of Hohenlinden, one of the most prominent instru- ments by which the Eevolution had been maintained against the antagonism of all the Courts of Europe, should at this moment have become a Legitimist, prepared to use all his influence in aid of a counter- revolution, is scarcely credible. It is more probable that he was actuated by the same motive as Oudet and Malet, and, foreseeing the extinction of the EepubHc, and fearing the consequences to France of a military dictatorship in the person of one so ambi- tious and so unscrupulous as Buonaparte, wished to 150 TEE PEILADELPHIANS. restore the Bourbons with constitutional guarantees for liberty. A numerous party in the Senate had privately offered to support him as a rival to Buona- parte ; he possessed the confidence of four thousand officers, members of the Philadelphic Society, and a large portion of the army would have hailed with acclamations his accession to power. It is obvious, therefore, that he held at his command all the elements of a counter-revolution; but he was un- willing to undertake an enterprise of so much importance without being assured of the concur- rence of the Bourbon princes, and obtaining from them guarantees for the establishment of liberal institutions. General Malet fell under the suspicion of plotting against the First Consul in 1802, as the chief agent in the conspiracy of which Fouche says Bernadotte was the mover, and Madame de Stael the centre, but which has escaped the notice of historians, Fouche was himself suspected of complicity in the plot, and was denounced by Dubois, then Prefect of Police ; but, with his usual adroitness, he contrived to retain his freedom. Malet, less fortunate, was arrested and suffered two years' imprisonment. The relations between the Philadelphic leaders and the Eoyalists are involved in some mystery, but there is no doubt that the connecting link was Pichegru, who had been associated with Moreau in the army of the Uhine, and who, on his escape from Cayenne, pro- ceeded to England, where he entered into communica- tion with the brothers of Louis XVI., with members of the British Government, and with Moreau. The caution and the moderate principles of the latter were TES PSILADELPHIAN8. 151 averse to the unconditional restoration of the Bour- bons, as proposed by Pichegru after interviews with the Count of Provence and the Count of Artois. Pichegru's scheme was indeed impracticable, for the number of Bourbonists was very small, and Cadoudal, though he assumed such a prominent position in the affair, had no other weight than was derived from his personal courage and his unqualified loyalty to the deposed dynasty. He had no national or even Parisian reputation, and was countenanced by Moreau only because he might be made useful. The Chouan element became a source of embarrassment, however, and, notwithstanding the prudence and sagacity of Moreau, his profound and skilfully devised combina- tions were pushed forward rashly and prematurely by Cadoudal, Lajolais, and the Polignacs. These chiefs were eager to extinguish the Consulate, and Moreau was frequently and impatiently urged by them to seize Buonaparte alive or dead, and proclaim the restoration of the monarchy ; but, deeming the time not yet favourable for the execution of so bold a design, he constantly refused. He could not, how- ever, enforce from Pichegru and Cadoudal the obedience rendered to him by the Philadelphians ; and, as he persisted in refusing to participate in any movement against the Consulate without first obtain- ing a guarantee for a constitutional basis for the monarchy, they determined to proceed with their measures without him. Early in June, 1803, Lord Pelhara told the Earl of Malmesbury, as private intelligence from Erance„ " that the Eepublicans and the Royalists were very numerous, and that if they could be brought to trust 152 TEE PEILADELPEIAN8. each other, and be convinced that if either gained possession of the power they would not persecute the other, a revolution might be operated."* A month later, Pelham told him " that Pichegru was the man confided in by Provence, and that he thought Moreau might be had." It was not, however, until the be- ginning of February, 1804, that the details of the conspiracy were communicated to him. " About this time," he says, " in the beginning of February, the measures concerted by Pichegru, Moreau, &c., were confided to me. They were represented as immanquahle. The idea was the restoration of the monarchy under a Bourbon prince. Their plans were extensive and, as they thought, well and secretly arranged. Pichegru left England about the middle of January. As soon as anything like a successful step had taken place, and whenever the event became certain, and the moment arrived that a more conspicuous character was necessary. Lord Hertford was to appear in the double character of making peace and restoring the old dynasty. The Due dAngoulSme was to have gone to France on due notice being given him. The event proved it was a very wide and deep-laid plot, but it also proved improper persons had been con- fided in or imprudent language held." About thirty of the Eoyalist leaders, including Cadoudal, Lajolais, St. Victor, and the Polignacs, were in London at this time conspiring with the British Government, the Bourbon princes, and General Pichegru, against the established order of things in France. Lajolais made more than one Diary of the Earl of Malmesbury. THE PHILABELPEIANS. 153 journey between London and Paris, and was detected by Fouche, to whom he is supposed to have revealed the plot. Regnier, who had at this time succeeded Fouche in the Ministry of Police, asserted, however, that an agent of the conspirators was detected at Calais, and papers found upon him which disclosed a correspondence between Pichegru and Moreau. This agent, whom Eegnier did not name in his report, may have been Lajolais, who perhaps procured by his disclosures immunity from arrest. Whatever Pouch^ learned at this time he kept to himself, being in dis- grace, and feeling confident that his aid would be required in the unravelling of the plot, though it is certain that he never thoroughly understood it him- self Pichegru and the Chouans passed over to Prance in small parties in the middle of January, and landed on the coast of Normandy, whence they proceeded to Paris, travelling only by night, in order to avoid observation, and selecting the least frequented roads. On their arrival in Paris, Pichegru at once sought an interview with Moreau, without whom it was clear to him, if not to -his associates, that nothing could be done. The two Generals had a conference on the Place de la Madelaine, and afterwards at the house of Moreau; but nothing came of their consultation. Pichegru was in the hands of the Bourbon princes, who were as impracticable as they showed themselves after the Restoration ; and Moreau would not consent to aid in restoring the monarchy without a guarantee for liberal institutions. The Chouans reluctantly abandoned their plan of attacking Buonaparte on his way to Malmaison or St. Cloud, overthrowing 154 TEE FHILADELPEIAN8. his guards and slaying him, and prepared to leave Paris. Touche, who had had them watched since their arrival in Paris, now saw that the time had come for him to act. He revealed the plot to the First Consul, who, he says, "recognised in the nature of the con- spiracy, and especially in the implication of Moreau, a stroke of fortune which secured him the possession of the Empire. He thought that to show Moreau as a conspirator would suffice to destroy his popularity. This mistake, and the assassination of the Duke of Enghien, very nearly caused his ruin."* Buonaparte immediately summoned Eegnier to his presence, and demanded to know how it was that Pichegru was in Paris, and that he, the Minister of Police, was unaware of the fact. Eegnier affirmed, with an air of con- fidence, that Pichegru was still in London; but Pouche produced such incontrovertible evidence of his presence in Paris that Buonaparte confided to him the further conduct of the measures for unravel- ling the conspiracy. The wily ex-minister accepted the commission with a zest sharpened equally by his late exclusion from office and favour, and by his hatred of the Eoyalists ; and all the Chouans, with the exception of Cadoudal, were promptly arrested, to the number of forty-two, and lodged in the Temple. Among the prisoners was one named Ozier, who attempted suicide, and made disclosures which led to the arrest of Moreau. A general order to the troops in Paris announced his arrest in the following terms, and spread consternation throughout the capital : — * Memoirs of the Duke of Otranto. THE PEILABELPHIANS. 155 " Fifty brigands have penetrated into the capital ! Georges and General Pich^gru were at their head. Their coming was occasioned by a man who is yet numbered among our defenders — by General Moreau, who was yesterday consigned to the hands of the national justice. Their design was, after having assassinated the First Consul, to have delivered over France to the horrors of a civil war and all the terrible convulsions of a counter-revolution." Eegnier, who had been unaware of Pichegru's presence in Paris until it was announced by Fouche, now pretended to have known all about the con- spiracy from the first, and made a report to the First Consulj in which the knowledge gleaned after the event was paraded as the results of his own vigilance and acuteness. " Last year," he reported, " a criminal reconciliation took place between Pichegru and Moreau, two men between whom honour should have placed an eternal barrier. The police seized at Calais one of their agents at the moment when he was preparing to return for the second time to England. In his possession were found all the docu- ments which proved the reality of any accommodation inexplicable on any other principle than the bond which crime creates. Meanwhile the plot advanced. Lajolais, the friend and confidant of Pichegru, passed over secretly from Paris to London, and from London to Paris, communicating to Moreau the sentiments of Pichegru, and to Pichegru those of Moreau. The brigands of Georges were all this time secretly pre- paring at Paris the execution of their joint projects. A place was fixed on between Dieppe and Trefort, at a distance from observation, where the brigands of 1S6 tb:e peiladelphians. England, brought thither in English ships of war, disembarked without being perceived, and there met persons corrupted to receive them — men paid to guide them during the night from one station to another, as far as Paris. There they found rooms ready hired for them by trusty guardians; they lodged in dif- ferent quarters — at Chaillot, in the E.ue du Bas, in the faubourg St. Marceau, in the Marais. Georges and eight brigands first disembarked; then Coster St. Victor and ten others; and in the first days of this month a third party arrived, consisting of Pichegru, Lajolais, and others. The conspirators met at the farm of La Potterie ; Greorges and Pichegru arrived in Paris. They lodged in the same house, surrounded by thirty brigands, whom Georges commanded. They met with General Moreau; the day, the hour, the place where the first conference was held were known; a second was fixed, but not accomplished ; a third and a fourth took place in the house of Moreau himself. The traces of Georges and Pichegra have been followed from house to house ; those who aided in their debarkation — those who under cover of night conducted them from post to post — those who gave them an asylum in Paris — their confidants, their accomplices — Lajolais, the chief go-between, and General Moreau — have been arrested." Pichegru and Cadoudal were still at large, but on the 28th of February, a fortnight after the arrest of Moreau, a bribe of a hundred thousand crowns induced a stockbroker named Leblanc, in whose house the former was concealed, to betray him to the police. A numerous and well-armed party went to the house TEE PSILADBLPHIAN8. 157 at night j for Pich^gru, like Cadoudul, was a man of powerful frame, immense strength, and tried courage. Pichegru had retired to rest, and the door of his chamber was locked. Leblanc produced a key which unlocked it, and the General was seen sleeping, with pistols by his side and a lamp burning on a table between the door and the bed. The police overturned the table, extinguished the lamp, and threw themselves upon him. A violent struggle ensued ; but numbers prevailed, and Pichegru was overpowered and taken to the Temple. Cadoudal evaded arrest until the evening of the 9th of March, when he was surrounded by the police while crossing the Place de la Odeon in a cab. Without an instant's hesitation he shot dead the man who had seized the horse's head, and with a second pistol severely wounded the first man who attempted to seize him ; but he was overpowered by numbers, handcuffed, and hurried off to the Temple. These successive arrests created an extraordinary sensation, not only in Paris, but throughout Prance; and the excitement was increased by the startling an- nouncement made on the morning of the 16th of April that Pichegru had been found dead in his cell — strangled — but whether by his own act or by that of his gaolers has never been clearly established. Suspicions of foul play were rife, and assertions that he had been assassinated received wide credence. The sailing-master of the British ship Vincego, cap- tured in the Bay of Quiberon, and who afterwards published a narrative of his imprisonment and escape, gays : — " I was at various times, and by different per- sons, shown the dungeon in which he was said to 158 TSB PEILADBLPEIANS. have been strangled; and one man, who pretended to be well acquainted with all the circumstances of that mysterious business, declared to me that the unfortunate General was found dead, with his hands tied behind him, and a stick twisted in the hinder part of his neck-handkerchief"* It is scarcely credible, however, that assassins would have left their victim's hands bound, and the circumstance was not mentioned in the report of the surgeons who examined the corpse, and who stated that it "was found with a black silk handkerchief tightly twisted round the neck by means of a small stick, about five inches long, which kept close on the left cheek, on which it rested by one end, thus pre- venting it unwinding, and producing the strangulation which had terminated in death." The gens-d'armes who were on duty near the General's cell deposed that they heard no noise during the night, except a sound which they thought was coughing, but which was described as " like a person breathing with difficulty," and lasted for some time. There was no other evidence, and the First Consul and his Ministers may be allowed the benefit of the doubt ; but the impres- sion was created very generally at the time that Pichegru was murdered to prevent the revelations which he had threatened to make on the trial, and which it was feared would exculpate Moreau and incriminate Touche. Buonaparte was bent upon having Moreau convicted, and he was as unscrupulous as Fouche in the means which he used to attain his * Narrative of Caleb Hiller. TEE FHILABELPHIAN8. 159 ends ; there were strong grounds, therefore, for the suspicion which the strange circumstances of Pichegru's death threw upon him ; while the remark of Eeal, the lieutenant of Fotiche, at the moment he was told of the event, that they (the police) would be suspected of having murdered the prisoner, seems to reveal the consciousness of guilt. The connexion of Oudet with this plot being unsus- pected, all the ramifications of Philadelphianism not having been traced by the police, it was at this time that Buonaparte terminated his enforced residence at Menale, and gave him the commission of major. He arrived in Paris immediately after the arrest of the conspirators, resumed his functions as chief of the Philadelphians, and proceeded immediately to concert a plan for the liberation of Moreau, in the event of his being capitally convicted. It is this conspiracy that is referred to by Beauchamp, who was not, how- ever, fully acquainted with the circumstances. " The disgraceful victory which Buonaparte obtained over an enchained enemy," he relates, "nearly caused his own ruin. During the trial of Moreau there was a conspiracy formed to liberate him by force, in the event of his being condemned to death. The authors of this scheme were for the most part oflScers on fur- lough from the army. The police were apprised of the fact, and the Palace of Justice was surrounded with troops and cannon. It seems certain that this military conspiracy was anterior to the pretended con- spiracy of Moreau, and, moreover, that it was not the hesitation of Moreau which caused the failure of the conspiracy of Pichegru, but the rash precipitancy 160 TEE PEILADELPEIAN8. of Pich^gru wliich defeated the real plans of Moreau."* The precaution of surrounding the tribunal and lining the approaches with troops would not have prevented an outbreak if Moreau had been condemned ; for, as the prisoners were each evening led back to the Temple, the files of soldiers between which they were conducted grounded their arms as the popular General passed, and whispered, "Greneral, do you want us ?" " No," Moreau replied ; " I do not like blopdshed/'t But if he had given the word, the Consulate would have been at an end, and Buonaparte a prisoner in the Temple, before the dawn of another day. In order to ensure the condemnation of the con- spirators, the Senate, at the instigation of Buonaparte, suspended trial by jury for attempts on the life of the First Consul, or against the security of the Eepublic. Had this precaution not been adopted, it is probable that Moreau would have been acquitted ; and it was he whose conviction was deemed necessary to the success of Buonaparte's ambitious projects. All the prisoners, forty-five in number, were brought to trial at once, the proceedings commencing on the 28th of May, and lasting fourteen days. Cadoudal admitted his share in the conspiracy, and gloried in it ; but Moreau declared that he had had no relations with the Chouans, and had declined to listen to the propo- sitions of Pichegru. It was affirmed, on the other hand, by Lajolais and another prisoner, named Picot, that he had had interviews with Cadoudal during the * Vie Priv6e de Moreau. t Secret History of the Cabinet of Buonaparte. THE PHILABELFSIANS. 161 latter's sojourn in Paris. During the trial he wrote to the First Consul a letter which was read to the Court, and in which he explained as follows his rela- tions with Pichegru : — "In the campaign of 1797 we took the papers of the Austrian staff. Amongst them were several which seemed to implicate Pichegru in a correspondence with the French princes ; this discovery gave us both great pain, but we resolved to bury it in oblivion, as Pichegru, being no longer at the head of the army, was not in a situation to do injury to the Republic. The events of the 18th Fructidor succeeded ; dis- quietude became universal, and two officers, who were acquainted with the correspondence, represented to me the necessity of making it public. I was then a public functionary, and could no longer preserve silence.* During the two last campaigns in Grermafiy, and since the peace, he has occasionally made remote and circuitous overtures to me as to the possibility of entering into a correspondence with tne French princes, but I considered them so ridiculous that I never made any answer. As to the present conspiracy, I can equally assure you that I have not had the smallest share in it. Whatever proposition may have been made to me, I rejected it at once in my own mind, and regarded it as the most absurd of projects." It was not to be expected that this explanation, and the absence of any other evidence against the writer than that of prisoners who hoped to save their lives by serving the ends of the prosecution, would save * Moreau communicated the correspondence to Barthelemy at that time. VOL. I. M 162 THE PHILADELFEIAN8. Moreau, any more than the admission of the prisoner whose disclosures implicated the Duke of Enghien, that he had mistaken Pichegru for the Duke, saved that unfortunate scion of the house of Bourbon. The profound sensation which Moreau's arrest had created, and the sympathy manifested by the army, con- vinced the First Consul that he had been mistaken in believing that the accusation of treason would suffice to deprive him of his popularity; but he now feared equally his enemy's acquittal and his conviction. Vague rumours of fresh conspiracies, seditious placards posted about Paris during the hours of darkness, anonymous letters of a menacing character, and so numerous as to alarm the authorities, excited in the mind of Buonaparte the most vivid fears that, if Moreau should be condemned to death, the announce- ment would be the signal for a serious commotion. Fouche had failed to penetrate the secrets of Phila- delphianism, and to discover all the hidden ramifica- tions of the plot, and the First Consul felt that he might be standing upon a mine ready to explode be- neath his feet. He wished to remove Moreau from the path of his ambition, yet feared that his condem- nation to death would occasion an outbreak which it might be difficult to repress, and that the memory of his fate would tend to keep alive in the army that spirit of insubordination which he knew was already far too prevalent. In his perplexity he sought counsel of Fouche, who, from his relations with the Eepublican party, was unwilling that Moreau should be sacrificed, while the possibility of the success of the Philadelphians in- disposed him to harshness even towards the partisans THE PHILADELPHIANS. 163 of the Bourbons. " I am not of opinion," he said, as he tells us himself, " that Moreau should die, and I do not approve of violent measures at all in this case. It is necessary to temporise ; for violence has too great an affinity to weakness, and an act of clemency on your part would produce a better effect than scaf- folds." Murat also suggested that Moreau's life should be spared, urging that the leniency of his treatment would reduce him to insignificance. In accordance with this suggestion, Moreau, with Jules Polignac and three others, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment only, while Cadoudal, Lajolais, Armand Polignac, St. Victor, Picot, and eleven others were condemned to death. Having determined to spare Moreau, the Pirst Consul could afibrd to regard more favourably than he was at first disposed to do the appeals that were made on behalf of the other con- spirators. The Polignacs belonged to an aristocratic family that had recovered some of its former influence, and Buonaparte thought it politic not to incur their resentment on the eve of his assumption of the impe- rial dignity. Armand Polignac and eight others, including Lajolais and Picot, were accordingly re- spited. For the same reason, and also because the Chouan leader's indomitable courage inspired him with invo- luntary admiration, he would even have spared the life of Cadoudal. On the night preceding the execu- tion of the Chouans he sent a confidential agent to the Temple, to offer the prisoners their lives on certain conditions. The officer found them at prayers, and, addressing Cadoudal, told him that he came, em- powered by the First Consul, to offer him his life and M 2 164 TEB PEILADELPHIAN8. a commission in the army, with the hves of all those included in the indictment, on the sole condition of their earning such clemency by an unreserved renun- ciation of the hopeless cause of the Bourbons. " That does not concern me alone," said Cadoudal. " Permit me to communicate your proposal to my comrades, that I may receive their opinions of it." He then repeated the First Consul's message, upon which one of the Chouans, whose name was Burban, rose immediately, and cried, " Vive le roi !" The cry was repeated by all the prisoners, as with one voice. " You hear !" said Cadoudal, turning to the officer. " We have only one thought and one cry, ' Vive le roi!' Have the goodness to report faithfully what you have heard." The officer sighed and left the cell, and on the fol- lowing morning the brave Cadoudal and his associates were executed on the Place de Greve. The removal of Moreau from the Temple was effected at night, in order to prevent a popular demonstration in his behalf; but, in avoiding one cause of disquiet, the First Consul encountered another. There was a rumour that he had been assassinated, and the excitement created by it threat- ened to reach to tumult. " The whole prison," says Caleb Hiller, whose narrative I here quote again, " was one morning thrown into great confusion in consequence of General Moreau having disappeared during the night. Every person in the Temple naturally concluded that he had fallen a sacrifice to the jealous fears of Buonaparte. The news of his departure quickly spread through the city of Paris, and, as Moreau was much beloved by the soldiery, TEE PEILABELPHIANB. 165 towards evening the walls of our prison were sur- rounded by thousands of people vociferating the ex- general's name, with dreadful denunciations of ven- geance against his persecutors. Daring the whole of the next day officers of all ranks were crowding to the gate, demanding to know what had become of General Moi*eau. Indeed, there were such marked demonstrations of affection exhibited by the troops and citizens, that I am fully convinced Napoleon acted the most politic part in banishing Moreau secretly from Paris. The populace would have risen in a body had he been carried oif by daylight." Buonaparte did not venture even to enforce the sentence passed upon Moreau, though so lenient in comparison with that which he had at first medi- tated. Having obtained his promise to quit France, never to return, he bought of him his estate of Gros Bois, near Paris, and permitted him to leave privately, the expenses of his expatriation being defrayed from the public treasury. Moreau proceeded at once to Cadiz,* from which port he embarked for the United States. Oudet remained the directing chief of the Phila- delphians, whose secret organisation Pouche made great efforts to unravel, with only partial success. He obtained a clue, but was immediately baffled and prevented from following it by the transformation of the Society into the Olympians, who, under the new- name, and with new symbols and pass-words, held the same principles and pursued the same objects. Several * The memoir, writers of the period differ as to the Spanish port whence Moreau sailed, some saying Barcelona. I have followed Fouche, who was liitely to have been well informed on the point. ]66 TEE PEILADELPHIAN8. of the diplomatic representatives of Britain at Con- tinental Courts were strenuously labouring at this time to excite a Eoyalist outbreak in France, and the correspondence which arose out of these intrigues was at length detected by Fouche, who immediately set a snare to entrap Drake, the British envoy at Munich, whom he actually decoyed into a direct correspondence with a secret agent of the French police* The letters were dictated by Buonaparte himself in his own cabinet, and Drake replied to them in the most im- plicit conviction of their authenticity. It is a curious circumstance that, though Fouche discredits Oudet's connexion with the Philadelphians and Olympians, a passage occurs in one of these letters which indicates that Oudet was the person referred to. " The chief of whom you desire particulars," wrote Mehee de la Touche, " is a man of a remarkable and distinguished figure, and twenty-eight years of age. His bravery exceeds all praise ; he speaks with grace, and writes with talent. The Republicans have such entire confidence in him, that they see, without the least inquietude, his visits to the First Consul when he leaves the army to come to Paris, and pay his court to the ladies who grace the saloons of the Con- sular Palace. If you desire my personal opinion of him, * "'M.6'k6e de la Touolie, the Frenchman who imposed on and betrayed Drake and S. Smith, published a very amusing, though probably very lying, account of the whole transaction. It certainly, as he states it, makes the dupery and terror of our two Ministers equal to his own rascality, and he seems to take pains to make both appear as clear and as notorious as possible. The account is well and clearly written. Hammond, John King, and Drake are very well described, and also Bertrand de Melville, on whom he also imposed most egregiously. This book was lent me by the grefier. Un- fortunately I lent it to Pitt (when I dined with him), and Pitt never returned it to me." — Diary of the Earl of Mahnesbury. THE PHILADELPEIANS. 167 it is this : his ambition is unbounded, and he plays with both Eepubhcans and Royalists, using both to gain his own ends. I flatter myself with having gained his confidence. The First Consul does all he can to conciliate him ; but there is only one mode of success — to yield up his own place in his favour." Oudet left Paris as soon as he was assured of the safety of Moreau, and proceeded to the south ; and about the time when the Philadelphians were trans- formed into the Olympians, the Marquis of Jouffroy appears on the scene as the agent of the Bourbon princes in negotiating with the Society for the restora- tion of the Monarchy. There does not appear, how- ever, to have been at any time a clear and defined understanding between the two parties. Each was endeavouring to make use of the other, the Bour- bonists being willing only to use the Olympians as a stepping-stone to power, and the latter resolved to work out their ends in their own way, and, in the event of success, to offer the crown and a constitution to the Count of Provence, making his acceptance of the latter the condition of his being allowed to grasp the former. It was ascertained at this time that Buonaparte was about to pass through Jura, with an escort of only a hundred Guards, and it was resolved to waylay and capture him, if he were not slain in the affray. A Provisional Government was then to be established, and the Crown of France offered to the Count of Provence, the condition of whose elevation to the throne was to be the establishment of a constitution similar to that of England. A picked force of 180 men was to make the attack, under the direction of a young officer named Bugnet, full of zeal and courage, 168 THE PEILADELPHIANS. and whose valour and conduct had been proved in many hard-fought battles. A secluded spot between the villages of Tasseniene and Colonne was to he the scene of the attack, the success of which would have changed the course of French history, though it would be vain to speculate upon the precise results which would have accrued from it. The daring scheme was frustrated by Fouche obtaining a clue to the plot at the eleventh hour, in consequence of which the route of the First Consul was changed when he had reached the post-house nearest to the spot where the conspirators awaited him. The Olympians dispersed on finding their plot defeated ; but Bugnet was arrested, with two other officers, named Pyrault and Lechanche. No further discovery was made at that time, and the entire organisation of the Olympians never became fully known to Fouche ; but so many of the secrets of the Society were learned by him, through the treachery of an officer instructed by him for the purpose, that their designs were rendered abortive. Drake having at the same time completely compromised both himself and the British Government, all his correspondence with Mehee de la Touche was published, by order of Buonaparte, who thus sought to cover his enemies with confusion, and at the same time to show a colourable excuse for the illegal seizure and execution of the Duke of Enghien. Among those political prisoners who shortly after- wards, on the occasion of Buonaparte's elevation to the imperial dignity, received an amnesty, was General Malet, who was at the same time restored to his rank in the army. In 1805 he was employed in Italy, but TEB PHILADELPHIAN8. 169 in the following summer lie was placed under arrest, and ordered to Paris. The grounds upon which this step was taken never transpired, and historians inform us vaguely that he had engaged in some illegal transactions at Oivita Vecchia; but there are good reasons for supposing that he was arrested merely on suspicion of a plot, of which no evidence could be obtained. He was detained, without being brought to trial, for nearly a year, when a military court of inquiry was instituted to investigate the charge against him, whatever it was, and it was determined to retain him in confinement " until the affair should have blown over."* In 1808, when he had been two years in prison, he conceived the bold design of over- turning the Government by spreading a false report of the death of Napoleon, who was then in Spain, and corrupting or arresting the chief civil and military authorities of the capital ; but the scheme was frus- trated by the sudden return of the Ernperor, and Malet remained a prisoner in the citadel of Vincennes four years longer. Moreau in exile, Malet in prison, the fortunes of the Olympians were darkened by a heavy cloud. Oudet was still at liberty, indeed, but Napoleon, though the utmost efforts of the police, civil and military, had failed to connect the Olympian chief with any of the numerous conspiracies against him, feared and hated the Eepublicans so much that his suspicions continually pursued him. So impervious was the mystery in which the Olympians shrouded their proceedings that Touchy could never be con- * AJison. 170 TEE PH1LADELP3IANS. vinced that Oudet was connected with them ; but Savary, who perhaps, as chief of the secret police of the army, had grounds for his suspicions which were unknown to the Minister, was so strongly impressed with the idea of danger to the Empire from Oudet, without having any positive evidence, that he resolved to destroy him, with as many more of the Olympians as could be reached. The precise share of the atrocity which must be assigned to Napoleon cannot be determined, but he cannot escape the odium of having at least been accessory after its accomplishment. Shortly before the battle of Wagram, Oudet was promoted to the command of a brigade, and ordered to organise a supplementary regiment, the officers of which he was allowed to select himself.* Fouche does not mention this seeming favour, though his account of the affair agrees in every other respect with that of the memoir attributed to Nodier. If the latter is authentic, the event proves that Oudet was allowed to select his officers in order that as many as possible of the Olympians might be brought together. However this may be, Oudet's brigade was assigned a position at Wagram in which it suffered terribly, several of the officers being killed, and most of them wounded. Oudet received three lance wounds, and in that condition received orders to pursue the enemy three leagues, and then, leaving, his brigade, to repair to head-quarters with all the officers that could be spared from regimental duties. The twilight of a summer night had commenced * Histoire des Sooidt^s Secretes de I'Arm^e et des Conspirations Militaires. TSE FEILABBLPBIANS. 171 when the defeated Austrians retreated northward along the roads leading to Bohemia ; and it was eleven o'clock, on a moonless night, when Oudet and his officers, returning towards Vienna, were startled by the rattle of musketry close at hand arid the whizzing of bullets amongst them. Most of them fell, and another volley from their unseen assailants stretched the remainder upon the road. Twenty- three dead or dying men were found next morning weltering in their blood. Oudet still breathed, but he died on the third day. Fouche hints plainly that the perpetrators of this horrible massacre were the military police nnder the direction of Savary ; but the mystery in which it was shrouded has never been revealed. It created a painful sensation throughout the army, and added another incident to the black chapter which records the death of Pichegru and the execution of the Duke of Enghien. The surviving leaders of the Olympians, with the exception of Moreau, were all at this time in prison, Malet at Vincennes, Lahorie and Guidal at La Force. But prison doors sometimes open mysteriously to the leaders of secret societies, and in the subtle brain of Malet the abortive project of 1808 was still working. The absence of Napoleon during the disastrous cam- pai-gn of 1812 afforded even a better opportunity for its execution than that presented by the war in Spain. If he could only escape from prison, he might release Lahorie and Guidal, corrupt or arrest the officers who exercised authority in the name of the Emperor, over- throw the edifice which Napoleon had reared upon the ruins of the Republic, and establish a Provisional Government, pending negotiations with the Count of 172 THE PEILABELFEIANS. Provence. The first blow would give the victory, and Napoleon would be startled amidst the snows of Eussia by the announcement of his outlawry by the enemies whom he had been striking down to such little purpose since the days of the Directory. Such an enterprise might well have been deemed worthy only of being conceived in the brain of a madman ; but there was method in it, and it was very near succeeding. Malet took into his confidence a fellow-prisoner, an old priest named Lafon ; and suc- ceeded in corrupting a young corporal named Eateau, who guarded his cell. Then the forgeries were executed which were required to smooth the way to the success of the plot. The conspirators prepared a document purporting to be a decree of the Senate, annulling the Imperial Government, appointing a Provisional Government in the persons of Moreau, Talleyrand, Trochot, Prefect of the Seine, and the Counts of Noailles and Montmorenci, and nominating Malet governor of Paris. Fouche, who was again under the cloud of Napoleon's displeasure^ and had been succeeded in the Ministry of Police by Savary, was to act in the place of Moreau until the latter could arrive from America ; and the command of the troops was to be ofiered to Massena, who was also in disgrace, and might, it was thought, be induced to join a movement against the Emperor when it had obtained its preliminary success. Several forged warrants for the promotion of certain oflScers, and orders on the treasury for considerable sums of money, completed the preparations for the projected revolution. All being prepared, Malet one night walked out of prison, wearing his General's uniform, and proceeded THE PHILADELPEIANS. 173 to the barracks of a regiment of infantry commanded by Colonel Soulier, to whom he showed the forged decree, informing him at the same time that the Emperor had been killed before Moscow on the 7th of October. The signatures to the decree were such excellent imitations of the handwriting of the persons whose names were thus unwarrantably used that Soulier was imposed upon ; and, on Malet giving him a warrant appointing him to the command of. a brigade and an order on the treasury for four thousand pounds, he offered no opposition when the audacious conspira- tor ordered the gates to be opened, and the troops to be mustered by torchlight, commanded the drums to beat, and read the decree. Malet then ordered a guard to accompany him to the prison of La Force, where, he liberated Lahorie and Gruidal. The troops were then divided into three bodies, and marched into Paris by different routes. One, led by Lahorie, a bold and energetic officer, directed its march to the Ministry of Police, where the General forced the doors, surprised Savary in bed, arrested him, and, after a vain altercation, lodged him safely in La Force. Guidal led another body of troops to t^e Prefecture, where he arrested Pasquier, Prefect of Police, as easily as his colleague had effected the capture of Savary, and hurried him off to join the Minister. Malet took possession of the Place Ven- d6me, and detached Soulier to seize the Hotel de Ville, and post a strong force on the Place de Gr^ve. It was now eight o'clock in the morning, and Trochot, who had ridden into Paris from his country-house, found the Hotel de Ville in the possession of Soulier, who gave him a despatch from Malet, ordering him to 174 TSE PEILADBLPHIAN8. prepare the principal apartment for the sittings of the Provisional Government. The Prefect bowed to the force arrayed against an order of things which seemed to be subverted, and the room was prepared ; but the individuals named in the forged decree did not deem the movement ripe enough as yet to be encouraged to assemble there. Malet had, in the meantime, sent forged orders to the colonels of two regiments, similar to those given to Soulier, whose example was immediately followed. By these means the conspirators obtained possession of all the barriers, which were immediately closed, to prevent any one leaving the city until the success of the movement was assured. Other bodies of troops occupied the principal public offices, including the Treasury and the Bank of France, where there was a large amount of money. While these measures were being taken, Malet proceeded, at the head of fifty men, to the office of the Etat-Major, where he gave Doucet, the Adjutant- Greneral, one of the forged orders which he had found so efficacious in promoting the success of the movement, and directed him to arrest Laborde, the Adjutant of the Commandant of Paris. Leaving half his guard before the office of the Etat-Major, he proceeded to the house of General Hulin, Commandant of Paris, and showed the forsred decree of the Senate. Hulin refused to obey the mandate, and Malet ordered his arrest. The Com- mandant resisted, and Malet discharged a pistol at his head, and wounded him so severely that he was thought dead. The conspirator then returned to the Adjutant-General's office, and was conversing with Doucet, when Laborde entered, and, having seen him TEE PHILABELPHIAN8. 175 in prison only the day before, at once denounced him. Malet was about to draw a pistol from the pocket of his coat, when Laborde, seeing the movement reflected in a mirror behind him, seized him, and with the assistance of Doucet disarmed and arrested him. The soldiers, on being informed by Laborde that they had been deceived, raised a cry of " Vive I'Em- pereur !" and returned to their barracks. The attempted revolution was now at an end. By nine o'clock Malet, Lahorie and Guidal were again in prison, and Savary and Pasquier were at liberty. A military commission was appointed for the immediate trial of the conspirators, with eleven other persons, regarded as their accomplices. Malet behaved with great firmness during the last hours of his restless and eventful life. He exculpated all his fellow- prisoners, and on being asked by Dejean, the presi- dent of the commission, who were his accomplices, replied with startling significance, "All France, if I had succeeded ; and you among the first. When men openly attack a Government by force, the palm is theirs, if they succeed; if not, death." Dejean turned pale, and asked no more questions.* Lahorie and Guidal protested that they knew nothing of the conspiracy until they were released from prison ; but all the prisoners were condemned to death, and shot on the following morning at Grenelle, Malet pre- serving his heroism to the last, and warning the authorities that he was " not the last of the Romans." Fouche says that Malet carried with him to the * M^moires de la Due de Eovigo. 176 TEE PHILADBLPHIAN8. grave " the secret of one of the boldest conspiracies which the grand epoch of the Eevolution has be- queathed to history." The precise meaning of this passage can only be conjectured. Fouche may have alluded to the secrets of the Olympians, or to the connexion with the conspiracy of persons against whom no evidence could be obtained. Olympianism was supposed to have disappeared with the victims of the mysterious tragedy of the night after Wagram, and there are no traces of any relations between the imprisoned Olympians and those who remained at large, unsuspected; but it is unlikely that Thibaudeau would have stated that the conspiracy of Malet had ramifications in the provinces, if he had not had sub- stantial grounds for the statement. The complicity of Fouche in the plot was suspected, but no evidence was procurable against him, and the investigation made by order of ISTapoleon into the whole of the circumstances connected with it resulted in the dis- covery of nothing that was not already known. The news of this affair affected Napoleon more than his military disasters in Eussia. He set out immediately for Paris, and during the journey was alternately depressed and moody, and irritable and savage. He reached the capital on the night of the ] Sth of December, so unexpectedly, and at such a late hour, that, on presenting himself at the Tuileries, he experienced some difficulty in gaining admission. On the following day he called for reports on the con- spiracy, and convened the Council of State. " Gentlemen," said he, " we must no longer dis- believe miracles ; attend to the report of M. Eeal on this affair." TEE PHILADELPHIANS. 177 The report having been read, he expatiated at con- siderable length on the evils of the loose ideas of duty prevalent in France, and which he attributed to the Eevolution. " At the first word of my death," he continued, " at the first command of an unknown individual, officers lead their regiments to force the gaols, and make prisoners of the highest authorities. A gaoler quietly encloses the Ministers of State within his doors. A Prefect of the capital, at the command of a few soldiers, lends himself to the pre- paration of his great hall for the assembly of I know not what factious wretches ! And all this while the Empress is on the spot, while the King of Eome is living, while all my Ministers and all tlie great Officers of State are at hand. Is a man, then, everything here? the institutions nothing? oaths nothing ?" No discovery being made, he was fain to content himself with the dismissal of Pasquier, the repri- manding of Trochot, and the suppression of the Municipal Guards of Paris. The prosecution of the war demanded the immediate exercise of all his powers, but even the insensate dreams of conquest which he still indulged cannot have rendered him wholly oblivious, in bis hours of repose, of the pre- carious tenure by which, as Malet's conspiracy had shown him, he held the throne. That extraordinary affair occupies fewer of the pages of Alison and Thiers than many of the military conflicts of the period ; but that it nearly cost Napoleon the Empire is acknowledged equally by Savary and by Pouchy. But for his recognition by Laborde, Malet, says the former, would " in a few moments have been master VOL. I. N 178 THE PEILABSLPRIANS. of almost everything; and, in a country so much influenced by the contagion of example, there is no saying where his success would have stopped. He would have had possession of the treasury, then extremely rich, the post-office, the telegraph, and the command of the hundred cohorts of the National Guards. He would soon have learned by the intel- ligence brought by the estafettes the alarming situation of affairs in Eussia; and nothing could have pre- vented him making prisoner the Emperor himself, if he had returned alone, or from marching to meet him if he had come at the head of his Ouards." The Grenelle executions left Moreau, then in the ninth year of his exile, the sole survivor of the Generals affiliated to the secret society projected by Malet and organised by Oudet. It is a singular coincidence, therefore, if it is nothing more, that Moreau should have prepared to return to Europe immediately after that event. After a tour through the United States, he had purchased the estate of Morrisville, below the Falls of the Delaware, where he resided quietly with his family until the spring of 1813. The ostensible and avowed motive of his return to Europe was the offer of a command in the Eussian army, which was made to him through Dashkoff, the Eussian Minister at Philadelphia. Colonel Eappatel, who had been his aide, imme- diately set out for St. Petersburg, via England, and on his arrival wrote to Moreau, who at the end of May quitted his retreat, and embarked on board an American vessel bound for Gothenburg. He arrived at that port on the 26th of July, and proceeded TEE FHILABELPSIAN8. 179 immediately to Tstadt, whence a Swedish war-brig conveyed him to Stralsund. Bernadotte, who was then at Berlin, set oif for Stralsund to meet him, and concert with him the plan of the campaign about to open ; and he was met also b}'' Colonel Eappatel and a gentleman in the civil service of Eussia named Svinine. On the night of the 10th of August he reached Berlin, where on the following morning he was visited by all the Prussian princes and generals then in the city. He started in the evening for Prague, where he arrived on the 16th, and was cordially received by the Czar, who two days afterwards introduced him to the Emperor of Austria. Evidence was soon afforded that Olym- pianism still existed in the French army. The officers of the garrison of Dresden drank his health at their mess, for which they escaped arrest only through the intercession of Berthier. Two officers of the garrison of Dantzig deserted their colours, and joined him at the head-quarters of the allied armies. Moreau was fated, however, soon to follow Pichegru, and Oudet, and Malet, Lahorie, and Guidal to a bloody grave. On the terrible 27th of August, while con- versing with Alexander, he was struck by a cannon- ball, which shattered both his legs. Eemoved from the field by some Cossacks on a litter formed of their lances, he suffered amputation of both limbs. The suffering consequent on removal with the retreating army to the frontier of Bohemia, borne by Eussian soldiers in a litter, amidst torrents of rain, caused fever to supervene, and recovery soon became hope- less. Death released him from suffering on the 2nd N 2 180 THE PHILABELPEIANS. of September, and his remains were removed by tbe Czar's order to St. Petersburg, where they were interred with the honours which had been accorded to those of Kutusoff. The sad news of his death was communicated to his wife by an autograph letter from the Czar, whose eulogy of his high character was as unqualified as it seems to have been sincere. The Count of Provence, on hearing of his death, said that he had lost the crown again, and that he had intended to make him Constable of France in the event of his restoration to the throne. But it was well for Moreau's fame, perhaps, that he never linked his fortunes with those of the Bourbons more closely. The Olympians were avenged when, within a few months after the death of Moreau, the Senate pro- nounced the deposition of Napoleon, and carried out the programme of Malet by appointing a Provisional Government, with Talleyrand as President ; and Pouch^ became so completely master of the situation that Carnot told Napoleon, on his resumption of the imperial dignity, "Tou may shoot Fouche to-day, but to-morrow you will cease to reign. The men of the Eevolution permit you to retain the throne only on the condition that you respect their liberties." CHAPTER IV. THE TUGENDBUND. T^UEING the early years of the present century, -*-^ when nearly all the peoples of the European Continent were trodden under the feet of Napoleon, none suffered greater humiliations, or more severe exactions, than the Germans. The upper classes writhed under the political degradation to which their country was subjected by the conqueror, the merchants and shopkeepers were reduced to poverty by the forced contributions levied by French armies, the peasantry yearly saw their fields laid waste by the operations of contending forces, and their flocks and herds driven off to feed the invaders. These evils they suffered in common with other nations ; but in their case there was added the irritating and insulting manner in which they were transferred, at the will of Napoleon, from one ruler to another, as if they were droves of sheep or cattle, and the galling con- sciousness that their princes were utterly devoid of patriotism, and would, one and allj declare for peace or for war, as France or England offered them the heaviest bribe. The feelings with which the Germans regarded the domination of Napoleon were aggravated, among the educated sections of the people, by the restraints 182 TEH TUOENDBUND. which, it imposed upon the freedom of speech and the press. The conflict of ideas out of which the Revo- lution had arisen had been felt in Germany more deeply than in any other country, and its dawn had been hailed with enthusiasm by all who could appre- ciate the blessings of civil and religious freedom. The principles of the Revolution had prepared the way for the French armies, and the tricolour of the Republic was welcomed by those who had indulged the day-dream of the lUuminati as the sacred standard of the emancipation of humanity from the despotism of kings and priests. But, with the change from the Republic to the Empire, followed as it was by the crushing disasters of Jena and Eylau and Friedland, and the humiliating Treaty of Tilsit, a heavy and ominous cloud settled upon the national mind. The execution of Palm, the arrest of the Prince of Hatz- feld, the insults hurled at the Queen of Prussia and the Duke of Brunswick, roused,- in a painful degree, feelings which could find no vent ; and the imbecility and meanness of the King of Prussia, and the miserably unpatriotic conduct of the minor Sovereigns, increased their bitterness. Under the influence of the galling humiliation inflicted upon his country by the treaty of Tilsit, by which the greater part of the Prussian dominions was divided between Saxony and Westphalia, Stein, the Prussian Prime Minister, conceived the idea of spreading over Germany a network of secret societies, by the agency of which the people should be prepared for a struggle, when the time should seem opportune, for the liberation of the Fatherland. He saw no hope for the country unless a new spirit could be infused TEE TUGENDBUND. 183 into the people ; no means so sure as that which he contemplated for accomplishing that work. The country was exhausted, the spirit of the people crushed out of them. Resuscitation might be possible, but a more potent charm would have to be devised for the purpose than the poor shadow of liberty which gave only a choice of despots. Stein bethought him of a spell well suited to the constitution of the German mind, and to the national temper at that period. He resolved to make constitutional govern* ment and a free press the prize to be won by the expulsion of the French, not doubting that the Sovereigns who owed their independence and the restoration of the old boundaries to the patriotic exertions of the people would cheerfully and un- grudgingly award it. The nucleus of the Association which Stein devised for this purpose, and which received the name of the Tugendbund, or League of Virtue, was formed during the latter months of 1807. His colleagues, Harden- berg and Scharnhorst; Generals Wittgenstein and Blucher ; Jahn, a Professor of the Berlin Gymnasium ; and Arndt, the popular author, were amongst the earliest members. The initiations multiplied rapidly, and the League soon numbered in its ranks most of the Councillors of State, many officers of the army, and a considerable number of the professors of literature and sciejice. By the active and zealous exertions of Stein, Hardenberg, and Jahn, its rami- fications spread quickly from the Baltic to the Elbe,. and all classes were drawn within its influence. A central directorate at Berlin, presided over by Stein, had the supreme control of the movement, and 184 THE TUGBNDBUND. exercised, through provincial committees, an authority all the more potent for emanating from an unknown source, and which was obeyed as implicitly as the decrees of Emperor or King. The promises of representative government and a free press which were secretly made to the initiated by leaders of the Tugendbund caused a low murmur of smothered patriotism to rise through all the north of Grermany. The youth of Prussia, of Saxony, of West- phalia — students, clerks, artisans — burned with patri- otic ardour to earn liberal institutions for their country by the expulsion of the French. It was a dream which their rulers never intended to realise ; but it served the exigency of the period. All through 1808 the leaders of the movement were active, and the outposts of the Tugendbund were pushed westward and south- ward until all Germany was in a ferment of patriotic excitement. The Society had been in existence little more than a year, however, when its organisation and aims nar- rowly escaped discovery. One day, towards the close of 1808, Stein, who had dined with a friend, and par- taken freely of wine, found, on his return home, a messenger waiting to carry despatches to Berlin, the Government being then carried on at Konigsberg. He wrote hurriedly a despatch to Prince Wittgenstein, and the messenger departed. A few days afterwards it was discovered that the despatches of the Ministers had not reached their destination, the messenger having been waylaid and deprived of them by French troopers. Count Golz, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, heard the news with dismay, for he remembered having written some passages in which Napoleon was THE TUGBNDBUND. 185 referred to in ■ a manner wliich he could scarcely fail to resent. Stein admonished him that he had acted un- wisely ; as for his own despatch, there was nothing in it, he said, which he need mind Napoleon reading. Great was his surprise and consternation, therefore, when he read his despatch in the Moniteur, and saw how seriously he had compromised the interests of the Government. He immediately resigned, and was succeeded by Hardenberg; but so little was he im- pressed with the idea of personal danger from the sentiments which he had expressed to Wittgenstein that he proceeded to Berlin, where he learned that Napoleon had issued a decree, dated from Madrid, December the 16th, in the following terms: — "A certain Stein, who is attempting to create disturbances, is herewith declared the enemy of France ; his pro- perty is to be placed under sequestration, and his person secured." Stein thereupon left Berlin, and took refuge in Prague, well knowing that Napoleon was quite capable of having him seized by his secret police, and shot in the fosse of the nearest French fortress. The illegal decree for his arrest was followed by demands from the same quarter for the dismissal of Scharnhorst, who held the Ministry of War, and Grliner, the chief of the Berlin police. Frederick complied, and Grliner, who was an active member of the Tugendbund, followed Stein to the Bohemian capital. The secret police of Savary were at that time spread all over the territories of the Ehenish Confede- ration, and the League was agitated by suspicion and dismay. Deeming themselves betrayed, the members burned their papers, changed their residences, and 186 THE TUGENJDBUND. adopted more secret means of communication. The mystery remained unrevealed, however, and Stein, from his retreat in Prague, directed the Society as secretly and as efficiently as if he had been in Berlin. The Bohemian capital was well suited for his purpose, being beyond the reach of Napoleon, and yet near enough to the German frontier for the maintenance of correspondence with the provincial committees. Hardenberg's connexion with the Tugendbund being unsuspected, the organisation of the movement was still carried on ; while Stein, secure from the agents of Savary, corresponded in the interests of the cause with Count Munster, formerly Prime Minister of Hanover, and the ambassador of Britain at the Court of St. Petersburg ; and with Arndt, compelled to seek refuge in Eussia from Napoleonic persecution. Lite- rary men were the special objects of Buonapartean aversion, tolerated only when they prostituted their talents to the support of his schemes, or the defence of his crimes ; and to Prague came Bran, a bookseller of Hamburg, who, ordered by Davoust to be arrested and shot, Jiis sole offence being the translation and publication of a work by the Spanish Minister, Cevallos, owed his life to a mistake of the police, who arrested instead a bookseller named Brand. Savary, kept to his work by his rancorous and suspicious master, was indefatigable in his exertions to obtain further traces of a movement to which only the faintest clue had been found, to be lost again immediately. His spies penetrated where he could not introduce his armed police. Varnhagen von Ense mentions "a Prenchman who Hmped about Toplitz for several weeks, and who had been ordered, as he TEE TUGBNBBUND. 187 said, to use the batlis for his wounds. He was anxious to make acquaintances, and tried to worm himself into society. ^Nevertheless he was not liked, and was looked upon as a spy ; and so he probably was, for the Duke of Eovigo mentions in his memoirs that he had a spy in Bohemia during that summer. I can only say that if this was the man the Duke of Eovigo was ill-served. No one would receive him. The Austrian officers to whom he wished to attach himself turned him into ridicule ; one of them, a cer- tain Baron von Knorr, remarkable for humour and courage, and always ready to use either, made it his business to tease this man, and was incessantly play- ing all manner of tricks upon him. He once seriously represented to the Frenchman that it had a bad appearance first to limp with the right leg and then with the left ; he ought to make up his mind at once as to which foot had been wounded, and in future , only to limp with that one, for that he and others were determined to look closely to this, and not to bear any more changing about. The Frenchman was wise enough to take all this banter very well, vowing that it was quite a mistake to suppose that the Germans did not understand a joke. The man was, however, by no means without taste or knowledge, and was not ill-natured ; only he did not succeed well in a part for which he was singularly unfit. I do not believe that he did any one a mischief, but I cannot but think that he did little honour to the choice of those who sent him."* The Austrian declaration of war against France, at * Sketches of tile War of Liberation. 188 THE TUGENDBUNB. the beginning of 1809, precipitated the conflict for which the Tugendbund was preparing the nation. Though the King of Prussia could not be induced to ally himself with the Kaiser, there were better patriots and bolder spirits among his subjects, and the blood of the whole nation was at boiling point. Katt, an officer in the Prussian service, raised the standard of independence in the valley of the Elbe, and made an attempt to surprise Magdeburg, which was garrisoned by only two companies of French infantry and three of Westphalians. If he had suc- ceeded he would have obtained possession of five hundred cannon, a hundred and twenty thousand muskets, and an immense quantity of ammunition ; and his success would have been the signal for the fiery cross to be carried with whirlwind speed from the Elbe to the Baltic and the Ehine. But the enterprise failed, and Katt and his followers narrowly escaped capture. About three weeks later an abortive insurrection against the rule of Jerome Buonaparte broke out in Hesse ; and Colonel Dornberg, ordered to march against the rebels, abandoned the Buonapartean stan- dard, and joined the soldiers of the League. Biding at their head, he led them against Cassel, and encoun- tered the troops of King Jerome. He endeavoured to open a parley, but the attempt was vain ; the artil- lery opened fire upon the insurgents, who immediately fled in confusion, leaving some of their number dead on the field. Dornberg led his broken band into the Hartz Mountains, and waited for the patriotic flame to spread. He waited in vain ; only in Berlin was there any response. There the brave Colonel Schill, THE 'lUQBNDBUNB. 189 an ardent member of the Tugendbund, compromised by papers found by the police in the house of Dorn- berg, and denounced to the King of Prussia by Jerome, led out his regiment of Hussars, six hundred strong, amidst the plaudits of the people, with the heroic resolve of raising all Germany against Napoleon, or perishing in the attempt. The audacity of this movement and the enthusiasm which it created in Berlin, and wherever Schill made his appearance, caused Napoleon more uneasiness than the operations of the Austrian army. The Prussian monarch proved subservient enough, however, to dis- arm his rage ; a court of inquiry was held, and a reprimand pronounced upon Schill; the Ministers Lestocq and Tauenzien were arrested and brought to trial on the charge of complicity in Schill's enterprise, but acquitted, there being no evidence to connect them with it. Schill, in the meanwhile, had moved upon Witten- berg with a force augmented to twelve hundred men, one-fourth of the number having joined him during the night after he rode out of the capital. In Witten- berg there was a large store of arms and ammunition ; but the commandant refused to admit Schill, who thereupon led his Httle army towards Magdeburg. The guns of that fortress menaced him, and he crossed the Elbe in the direction of Dornitz — by that move- ment, undoubtedly an error of judgment, missing the opportunity of effecting a junction with Dornberg. Finding himself unable to effect any operation of im- portance, and threatened by the enemy, he retired upon Stralsund, where he found himself enclosed between the Baltic waves and the bayonets of a 190 THJE TUGENDBUND. heterogeneous force of French, Dutch, and Danish troops, collected by General Qratien. On the 31st of May the last sparks of the abortive movement of the Tugendbund were quenched in blood by these assailants, who outnumbered the force led by SchUl in the proportion of five to one. True to his maxim, " Better an end with terror than terror without an end," he animated his followers to a desperate resist- ance, and the conflict that ensued in the streets of Stralsund was fierce and sanguinary. Schill fell, fighting to the last, and his head, hacked from his bleeding trunk by a Dutch soldier, was carried away as a trophy. Eleven officers of this pioneer corps of liberation, members of the leading families of the Prussian aris- tocracy, were made prisoners and sent to Verdun, having claimed to be treated as prisoners of war. But, as there was peace between Prussia and Prance, this claim was not admitted, and they were sent to Wesel, to be there tried by a military commission. There could be no doubt as to their fate, which never- theless excited a thrill of horror throughout Germany when it became known that they had been sentenced to death at noon and shot next morning in the fosse of the citadel. They went to the place of execution singing a patriotic hymn, and died with the fortitude of heroes and martj^rs. Darker now grew the night of the German people, and more than three years elapsed before any signs of the dawn could be descried on the political horizon. The hopes of Austria were crushed at Wagram, and once more the Fatherland was parcelled out by the will of Napoleon, and a million of Germans made to TSU TUGBNBBUNB. 191 cha.nge their allegiance, like sheep marked with the symbol of a new owner. The Tugendbund alone kept alive the hopes of the people. Stein found it necessary to seek an asylum in Russia, but he still directed the movement from his retreat. Hardenberg, though forced to discountenance it in public, secretly con- tinued to support it. Jahn fostered it with untiring zeal in the Gymnasia. Wittgenstein, who had accepted a command in the Russian army, maintained relations with the League, which he regarded as the only means by which his country could be raised from the slough into which she had been plunged by the incapacity of her rulers either to understand the Revolution or to resist the encroachments of its military spawn. Fichte, the philosopher, imbued the Berliners with his idea of a righteous war, and organised a fund for the widows and orphans of the patriots destined to fall in the battles yet to be fought. Korner, the poet, breathed all his soul into his in- spiriting lyrics, which were sung wherever Germans could assemble without fear of the secret police of their oppressor. The wearily-waited for hour at length arrived. The flames that drove Napoleon from Moscow were the beacon-fires that were to light the Germans to their revenge ; the snow-flakes that whitened the road along which he retreated bore each an assurance of victory to the down-trodden people whom he had left fettered in his rear ,when he marched to the hoped-for accomplishment of his insensate dream of universal domination. Stein, Arndt, and Wittgenstein were in Russia, the last in command of a Russian army, and the provincial committees of the Tugendbund received 192 TEE TVQENBBUNB. from them with daily increasing eagerness intelligence of the progress of the war in that country. They heard, about the middle of November, that the French army was in full retreat, and that their countryman was hurrying towards the Dwina to intercept it ; and their hopes rose higher with the news that Victor and Oudinot had fallen back before Wittgenstein, who had followed up his advantage by cutting off Victor's rearguard, and inflicting upon the main body that crushing defeat at the Beresina which completed the ruin of the French army. Early in 1813, a proclamation, signed by Stein, was secretly circulated by the Tugendbund through the provinces which had been torn from the Prussian kingdom by the Treaty of Tilsit, calling upon the inhabitants to take arms, and throw off the foreign tyrant's yoke. They were read with avidity, and the whole nation burned for the day of uprising, for which Frederick William could not at first be prevailed upon to give the legal sanction of a declaration of war. Stein, Hardenberg, and Scharnhorst did their utmost to emancipate his mind from the selfish reasonings which withheld him from responding to the patriotic ardour of his subjects ; but for some time he with- stood both the exhortations of his counsellors and the promptings of Alexander, even offering to take the field against Eussia if Napoleon would relieve him from pecuniary obligations and restore a portion of the territory of which he had been despoiled. It was only when Napoleon, with characteristic pride and stubbornness, rejected his offer, that he at length, on the 1st of March, formed at Kalisch an alliance with TEE TUGENDBUND. 1P3 Alexander, and ventured to declare war against France. The wild enthusiasm which was immediately mani- fested throughout Grermany is without a parallel in history. The members of the Tugendbund formed volunteer corps, uniformed in black, and swore to liberate their country, or fall in the attempt. Wealthy patriots gave large sums for the provision of clothing, arms, and accoutrements ; women despoiled themselves of their ornaments for the same purpose. Iron crosses were distributed to these patriots, bearing the inscrip- tion, We gave gold for iron, 1813. Jahn and Fichte fanned the patriotic flame with their lectures, Arndt and Korner with their inspiring lyrics. It was at the close of a day of great excitement in Berlin that Fichte lectured for the last time before the commencement of the war of libeKation. The subject was one which the Berliners would have voted dry and didactic if they had not known the lecturer so well, and been so deeply imbued with the spirit of the times. As it was, the hall was crowded, and Fichte was listened to with profound attention, though interrupted at intervals by the tramp of feet in the neighbouring street and the rolling thunder of the martial drum. Gradually he led his hearers from the subject of their private duties to that of the duty which they owed to their country, and grew eloquent as he reminded them of Germany's woes and wrongs. He concluded amidst a burst of applause, and, after pausing to allow it to subside, announced that the lectures would be suspended for the present. " They will be resumed in a free land," he added, "or we VOL. I. 194 TEE TUGENBBUND. will perish in the attempt to regain our liberties." Then, while the hall echoed with the cheers of his audience, he went forth and enrolled himself as a private in one of the Berlin volunteer corps. "Germany is up!" Korner wrote to his father on the 10th of March. "The Prussian eagle awakens in all hearts the great hope of Germany — at least Northern Germany — freedom. My muse sighs for her Fatherland ; let me be her worthy disciple. Yes, dearest father, I have made up my mind to be a soldier ! I am ready to cast away the gifts that Fortune has showered upon me here to win myself a Fatherland, were it with my blood." The poet hurried from Vienna, where he had been for some time resident, and followed the example of Fichte. Jahn, Steffen, Arndt, the Prince of Karolath, did the same; The intensity and earnestness of the enthusiasm of the volunteers are finely depicted by Korner in a letter to Caroline Pichler, written at the commencement of the war. " We marched," he says, " in parade from Zoblen to Eogau, a Lutheran village, where the church, with great simplicity, but also with great taste, had been decorated for the con- vention of the volunteers. After singing a hymn of my composition, the clergyman of the parish delivered ah address, full of manly vigour and public enthusiasm. Not a dry eye was to be seen in the whole assembly. After the service, he pronounced the oath before us, f6r the cause of humanity, of the Fatherland, of religion, to spare neither substance nor soul — to conquer or die for the right. We swore ! He then fell on his knees, and besought God for a blessing on His champions. It was a moment when the present THE TUOENBBUND. 195 thought of death kindled flame in every eye, and awoke heroism in every heart. The oath, solemnly repeated by all, and sworn on the swords of the ofiBcers, and Luther's hymn, 'A stronghold is our God,' concluded the ceremony; upon which a thundei-ing cheer burst from the congregation of champions for German freedom, while evei:y blade leaped from its scabbard, and gleams of warlike light shone through the sanctuary. The hour was so much the more impressive that most of us went with the conviction that it was the last time we should ever meet." Varnhagen von Ense is of opinion that there were too many men fit to be officers in this corps, and that, with a less proportion of princes, philosophers, and poets, it would have done more real service. Eichter, however, with a juster perception of the truth, says that " in Liitzow's volunteer corps lived the idea of the war. The universal enthusiasm elevated itself here to a noble self-cousciausness. In the other corps, this and that individual might attain the same high intellectual position that was here the distinction of the whole body ; every soldier entered with full sympathy into the dignity of his personal mission, and fought from a clear conviction, not from a blind impulse. Those loose and roving adventurers who, to a certain extent, will always mix themselves up with a volunteer corps were kept in check here by the number of high and noble spirits with whom they found themselves in daily communion. Here, all who glowed with holy revenge against the recklessness of a foreign tyranny — all who, in other parts of Europe, had shown themselves to be animated by a spirit of unyielding animosity to Napoleon's despotism — all r> ^ 196 THB TUOENDBUNB. who had learned, undei" long- conquering banners, to curse the conquests and to despise the conqueror, were gathered together in one knot of many- coloured, but one-hearted, friendship. These men were all penetrated by the conviction that, in the nature of things, no power merely military, no cunning of the most refined despotism, can, in the end, triumph over native freedom of thought and tried force of will. These men looked upon themselves as chosen instru- ments in the hand of the divine Nemesis, and bound themselves by a solemn oath to do or to die. These men were virtually free while Germany yet lay in chains ; and for them the name of free corps had a deeper significancy than that of volunteer soldiers. Here the deed of the individual was heralded by the thought that measured inwardly, and rejoiced in the perception of its capability."* The Berlin volunteers were terribly cut up at Liitzen, where Scharnhorst received a mortal wound ; and Goethe said to Korner and Arndt, when he met them shortly afterwards at Dresden, " You may shake your chains, but the man [Napoleon] is too strong for you; you will not break tliem."t But the heroic resolve of the Leaguers was too firm to be shaken bv a first defeat, and though the Allies were again defeated at Bautzen, where a disaster was only averted by the indomitable valour of Blucher, a leader of the Tugendbund, their courage rose with the occasion. The Allies retreated in good order, and made a stand at Schweidnitz, in Silesia, being induced to retire * Gesokichte des Deutsclien Freiheitskrieges vom 1813. t Arudt's Erinuerung. THE TUGENDBTIND. 197 towards the Bohemian frontier, rather than in the direction of Berlin or Warsaw, their proper lines of communication, by the expectation that Austria would join the Alliance. Napoleon being at the same time apprehensive of the consequences of Austria's ultimate decision, and harassed in his communications with the Rhine by the volunteer corps of the Tugeudbund, an armistice was signed at Pleswitz on tlie 4th of June, according to which the French were to retire beyond the Elbe, while negotiations for peace were to be carried on at Prague. Ten days after the conclusion of the armistice, the volunteer cavalry corps of Major Liitzow — im- mortalised in Korner's stirring poem, " Liitzow's Wild Chase" — was attacked at Ketzig, near Zeitz, in Saxony, by a force of three thousand French, com- manded by General Fournier, under the pretence that the armistice did not apply to irregulars. Liitzow and Korner advanced to parley with Four- nier, and represent to him that they relied upon the • armistice, when the French General cut down the laureate of the people before he could draw his sword. The Germans charged heroically to the rescue of Liitzow and Korner, and succeeded in saving them ; but they were overpowered by numbers, the French being six to one, and the greater part of the force i'ell on the field, or were made prisoners. Korner was borne by the remnant of the corps to the cottage of a peasant, and afterwards to the house of I>r. Windier, at Leipzig, where he remained for some time in a precarious condition. So mucli excitement was created in Leipzig by this event that only the presence of a large French garrison prevented an 198 THE TUOENDBUND. insarrection, and throughout Germany the cry was, "No peace till Korner is avenged !" On the very day that the skirmish of Ketzig was fought, Austria, ah-eady in secret communication with Prussia, Eussia, and Britain, concluded a treaty of alliance with those Powers at Reichenbach; and, though the armistice of Pleswitz was prolonged until the 10th of August, in the hope that Napoleon would make the territorial restitutions required of him, the Congress of Prague was dissolved at midnight on that day, arid on the following morning Austria for- mally declared war. The determination of Napoleon to renew the conflict in Saxony was opposed by his Marshals, who recommended him to retire upon the Rhine, in consequence of the popular excitement stimulated by the Tugendbund, which was stirring up all Grermany in his rear, and urging the Princes of the Ehenish Confederation to declare against him. The Emperor was obstinate, however, and disposed his forces along the line of the Elbe, stretching from the Bohemian frontier to Hamburg, with his head- quarters at Dresden. On the fourth day after the resumption of hostili- ties, Blucher crossed the Katzbach, and compelled Macdonald to fall back; but Napoleon, desirous to ravage Berlin, moved against the General of the Tugendbund in great force, and forced him to relin- quish his advantage. The Austrians and Russians were now advancing from Bohemia, however, and threatening Dresden, upon which St. Cyr had re- treated; and General Walmoden, to whose division the volunteer cavalry of Major Liltzow was attached, was operating in the north-west. Napoleon, bent on THE TUGENBBUNB. 199 punishing the defection of the King of Prussia, ordered Davoust to move from the west, and Oudinot from the south, in order to occupy Berlin; and Liitzow's volunteer corps being driven out of Lauen- burg at the same time, Walmoden fell back towards Grabow. Oudinot being checked, Davoust hesitated to advance, and, on being attacked and defeated by Walmoden at Vellahn, on the 21st of August, retired into Hamburg. Walmoden's light cavalry then scoured the left bank of the Elbe, and inter- cepted a despatch from Davoust to the Grovernor of Magdeburg, announcing that the division of General Pecheux would be sent to reinforce the garrison of that town. Walmoden thereupon left the Mecklen- burg Landwehr in the neighbourhood of Schwerin to watch the movements of Davoust, marched to Dornitz, and, crossing the Elbe on a hastily constructed bridge of boats, came up with Pecheux at Gorda, and defeated him, capturing all his artillery, and taking eighteen hundred prisoners, including the whole of the rear- guard. The victors then recrossed the Elbe, and again confronted Davoust before he was aware that they had moved. The balance of victory still oscillated, however, now inclining to the invaders, now to the liberators. While Walmoden held Davoust in check at Hamburg, Napoleon gained a great victory over the Austrians. The advantage did not long remain with the victors, however, for on the 26th Blucher surprised Macdonald on the Katzbach, and inflicted upon him a severe chastisement, while Oudinot was defeated at Gross Beeren, and l^"ey at Dennewitz. While the news of these victories v.^as encouraging 200 TEE TUOENBBVND. the people of "Western Germany to chant more enthu- siastically than ever the war-songs of their warrior- bards, Korner and Arndt, the former fell in an ambuscade of the enemy, near Gadesbusch. Liitzow's yagers had waylaid some waggons of ammunition and provisions, intended for the army of Davoust, and dispersed the escort; but in returning to the head- quarters of Walmoden with their spoil, they were fired upon while passing through a wood, and Korner- dropped dead from the saddle, shot through the spine. Count Hardenberg, a relative of the Tugendbund statesman of that name, was killed by the same volley. Both were buried on the spot, beneath an old oak, the bark of which was afterwards inscribed with Korner's name. Though the poet's spirit had passed away, the spell of his name remained undis- solved. The battle of Gohrde was fought a few days afterwards, and Liitzow's cavalry were again in the hottest of the fight, distinguishable everywhere by their black uniform. In charging a squai'e of French infantry, an officer named Berenhorst received a ball in his side. Folding his cloak round him, he cried, " Korner, after thee !" and galloped on until another ball pierced his breast, and he rolled upon tl^e ground a corpse. But Davoust was checkmated, and Napo- leon's left was laid open to the advance of Blucher. Though JMapoleon had again compelled that General to recross the Katzbach, and barred the defiles of the Bohemian mountains against the Austrians and Eussians, the indomitable General of the Tugend- bund advanced as soon as Napoleon left the way open, while he moved against Schwartzenberg, and. TRE TUGENBBUND. 201 at the end of September, Napoleon, finding himself unable to maintain any longer a combat so unequal, abandoned the right bank of the Elbe, and retreated upon Leipzig. The end was drawing near for which the Tugendbund had so patiently prepared. Volunteer corps harassed the French communications with the Ehine, and rendered Napoleon's position every day more precarious. Popular pressure bore with con- stantly increasing force upon the Sovereigns of the minor German States, until it became as dangerous for them to adhere to Napoleon as to declare against him. The King of Bavaria joined the Allies ; the King of Saxony, surrounded by French troops, remained in unpatriotic irresolution, despite the in- dignation of his subjects; the King of Westphalia fled from his capital, and his kingdom was declared dissolved. At the first battle of Leipzig, Blucher held a position on the north of the city, where he defeated Ney with great loss, and drove him across the Partha. It was time then for Napoleon to be gone, for more Russians were coming under Benningsen, and the Swedes under Bernadotte ; but he lingered two days longer, in the hope of the enemy committiug some blunder which might enable him to retrieve his fast-falling fortunes. lu the decisive battle of the 18th of October the Saxon troops refused any longer to fight on his side, and the French were driven into Leipzig with appal- ling slaughter. Not there, however, could they rest. Germany was henceforth to be to them what Eussia had been. Their artillery captured, their ammunition exhausted, they struggled through the darkness of 202 THE TUGENDBUND. that terrible night across the narrow bridges of the Elster, with the furious enemy hanging close upon their rear. One of the bridges broke down, the other was prematurely fired by the retreating troops, and hundreds were drowned in crossing the river, prisoners taken by thousands. The pursuit was entrusted to Blucher's Division and the Cossacks, who from that time harassed the retreating foe without intermission. As they ad- A'auced, a Provisional Grovernment was appointed for Western Germany, with Stein, the chief of the Tugend- bund, at its head ; and when, on the 1 st of November, the remnant of the mighty army which Napoleon had led to the invasion of Russia a year before had crossed the Ehine, the administration of the Ehenish provinces was entrusted provisionally to Griiner. The first part of the program.me of the Tugendbund was now accomplished. Germany was free from the heavy and exacting grasp of a foreign foe, and the ancient federation of her princes, dissolved by Napo- leon, was restored. Those potentates, great and little, had not evinced much patriotism during the struggle ; but the leaders of the Tugendbund, and still less the thousands who constituted the mass of that Society, could not have suspected that the hopes which had animated the people of Germany during the struggle would be dashed to the ground as soon as the Fatherland was liberated from foreign domination. In the flush of their pride and joy, they deemed that their rulers could not meditate the rank ingratitude of refusing to give effect to the second part of the programme of the League by conferring upon their TEE TUGENDBUND. 203 country representative institutions. To the people, to the Tugendbund more especially, the Sovereigns of Germany owed their thrones ; surely then, it was thought, they would not refuse to fulfil the promises which they had allowed to be made in their names. Stein and Griiner, who were the chief advisers of the King of Prussia during the period immediately following the liberation of the territory, urged upon him the views of the Tugendbund concerning the poli- tical future of Germany : but though the realisation of those views would have given him the headship of the Fatherland, he thought far more at that time of absorbing the dominions of the King of Saxony than of the greatness and glory of Germany, or even of the true interests of his own realm and dynasty. So stoutly did he contend for what he regarded as his due share of the spoils of war, that a new war, with Austria, France^ and England united against Prussia and Eussia, was prevented only by the return of Napoleon from Elba and the flight of Louis XVIII. from Paris. Then the bone of contention was dropped ; the King of Prussia, trembHng lest his hopes of terri- torial aggrandisement should be frustrated, hastened to assure his subjects that the promises made to them in his name should be honourably fulfilled ; and the Allies again united their forces in order to expel Napoleon from France as an incorrigible disturber of the public peace. On the final downfall of Napoleon the question of the future constitution of the German Confederation was again discussed.. Hardenberg combineki the pro- position of representative institutions with the old 204 THE TUGENBBUNB. relations of the sovereign princes to each other : Stein wished to modify those relations by transferring the headship of the Confederation to the King of Prussia, and at the same time to make the Federal Diet a representation of the people, and not merely of the princes. Neither could obtain the endorsement of their propositions. The rights of the people were as completely ignored by the Grerman Sovereigns as they had been by Napoleon; and that potentate never carved out the soil of Germany, transferring the frag- ments from one prince to another at his will, with greater disregard for the feelings and interests, of the people living upon them, than did the diplomatists assembled at Vienna in 1815. There was much wrangling over Saxony, with one-third of which the King of Prussia was at length fain to be content; but he obtained also the Duchy of Lauenburg, which he bartered for Pomerania, which was at first ceded by Sweden to Denmark as compensation to the latter for the loss of Norway. Another slice of Saxony was awarded to England as an addition to the Electorate of Hanover, in exchange for Lauenburg. This pro- fitable political huckstering was much more congenial to the narrow mind and grasping disposition of Frederick William than the ideas of the Tugendbund. The unity of Germany, as devised by Stein, seemed to require the restoration of Alsace and Lorraine ; and this idea was warmly supported by Gorres in the Rhenish Mercury, and by the Crown Prince of W'ur- teraburg. Austria and Prussia urged it in the Con- gress, the former having a design to bestow the provinces on the Archduke Charles, who had lately THE TUGENDBUND. 205 married the Princess Henrietta of Nassau ; but England and Eussia supported France in her opposi- tion, and Austria first, and then Prussia, abandoned it.* With the exception, therefore, of certain re- parcelhngs of territory, the G-erman Confederation was restored in its former limits and constitution. Stein was greatly disappointed. "My desire for the aggrandisement of Prussia," he wrote to Baron Gagern, " proceeded not from a blind partiality to that State, but from the conviction that Germany is weakened by a system of partition ruinous alike to her national learning and national feelings. ... It is not for Prussia, but for Germany, that I desire a closer, a firmer internal combination — a wish that will accompany me to the grave. The division of our national strength may be gratifying to some ; it can never be so to me." The King of Prussia was ani- mated by no such patriotic aims ; he dismissed Stein from his councils a second time, and removed Griiner from the administration of the Ehenish provinces. Stein retired to his estate of Kappenberg, and Griiner received a diplomatic appointment at Berne, where he died. Having got rid of his ablest and most patriotic advisers, Frederick William entered upon a course of repression, involving the blackest ingratitude and the most shameless disregard of the requirements of honour. Gorres was warned to discontinue his demand for representative government, and, on his disregarding the warning, his journal was suppressed. * Menzel's History of Germany. 206 TSB TUQENDBUND. All the other liberal newspapers shortly afterwards met the same fate. The professors were admonished to moderate the tone of their discourses, and were successively reduced to submission. Oken and Luden at Jena, and the younger Wieland at Wiemar, con- tinued to speak freely and nobly for a time ; but all were at length silenced. The Gymnasia were sup- pressed, through fear of the influence of Jahn. Free- dom had no longer a voice — so hateful was it to the King of Prussia to be reminded of his broken promises. The five years following the final downfall of Napo- leon, instead of being marked by the establishment of free institutions in Germany, as the nation had ex- pected, were a period of political retrogression towards the worst times of absolutism. The organisation of the Tugendbund would have sufHced for a revolt against the native despots, but the popular feeling was resti'ained by the knowledge that these were but the executors of the decrees of the Holy Alliance. Though the Congress of Aix-la-Cliapelle was ostensibly convened to consider the affairs of France, Stourdza, a Bussian Councillor of State, who presided over its sittings, abused his position by denouncing the Ger- man universities as hotbeds of revolution ; and Kotzebue, a German litterateur in the secret service of Eussia, sent to St. Petersburg reports filled with suspicions and invectives against professors and students, authors and journalists. The spirit of the nation writhed under a state of things that recalled so forcibly the domination of Napoleon, to shake off" which so much blood had been shed ; and the pent-up THE TUGENDBUND. 207 feelings that could find no vent by voice or pen prompted to revenge men whose minds had grown morbid by dwelling incessantly upon tlie nation's wrongs. Kotzebue fell beneath the knife of Sand, a student of the university of Jena. Ibell, another instrument of Eussia, narrowly escaped a similar fate at the hand of Loning. Sand was executed ; Loning committed suicide in prison. Though they both denied that they had any accomplices, or were affiliated to the Tugendbund, or any other secret society — and there was no evidence to prove the contrary — their crimes were made the pretext for the persecution of all who were known to entertain liberal opinions. The Ger- man Sovereigns assembled at Carlsbad, and their rising was the signal for a reign of terror. The uni- versities were placed under the strictest supervision, and a commission was instituted at Mayence which was really a political Inquisition. Jahn was arrested ; Arndt was suspended at Bonn, and Fries at Jena ; De Wette, professor of theology at Berlin, was de- prived of his chair for writing a letter of condolence to the mother of the student Sand ; Oken, the eminent naturalist, threatened with the same severity, took refuge from persecution in Switzerland ; Grorres, having published a pamphlet reproaching the King of Prussia with the violation of his promises, was forced to adopt the same course. Many of the younger pro- fessors and literary men fled from a country which seemed the grave of liberty, and found an asylum in the United States. Hundreds of students were im- prisoned. 208 THE TUGBNBBVND. But the degradation of German royalty was not yet complete. There was a lower depth yet to be reached. It was attained on the day when the national tricolour was declared a symbol of revolution, when the festival which commemorated the liberation of the country was forbidden, and the monument on the field of Leipzig was levelled with the ground. pf^ 5^^^^^ ^^^K^^^J^'^^sJ^JS ^^St ^^r^ ^fe ^^^^ ^^^^h ^^^^^^^^H ^ ^^S ^^ ^^^^^^ ^m ^^^B CHAPTER V. THE CARBONARI. ^HE origin of the remarkable Society whose name -*- appears at the head of this chapter is involved in no small amount of obscurity. The traditions noticed in the Introduction, and which assign it to the actual Charcoal-burners of the Middle Ages, are too misty and intangible for investigation ; and the various statements which have received publicity since the Society forced itself upon the attention of the world serve only to show that the writers who have professed to know all about the matter, and some of whom were affiliated to the Society, were themselves ignorant of the circumstances in which it had its origin. Its institution has been ascribed to Queen Caroline of Naples, to an unnamed French officer of the garrison of Capua, to an unknown Neapolitan officer who is said to have brought the system from Spain, to spontaneous generation in the bosom of an association formed for the cultivation of political science. There is no evidence, however, by which either of these antagonistic statements can be sup- ported. They must be regarded as mere guesses, hazarded by their propounders in the absence of knowledge. Lady Morgan was of opinion that, " in its original VOL. I. P 210 THE CAMBONABI. formation there were no mysteries to conceal, no forms to celebrate, no dogma, no secret. The league was that of intellect, of spirits ardent in the cause of liberty and truth." This expression of opinion may be safely ventured upon with regard to every secret society ; and we are brought by its enunciation in respect to the Carbonari no nearer to the time, place, and circumstances of the Society's origin, or to the persons by whom it was instituted and organised. Nothing authentic in connexion with the Carbonari can be discovered earlier than 1814, when the first lodges of the Society were opened in the Neapolitan provinces by Maghella, a native of Genoa, who, at the time when Joachim Murat became King of the Two Sicilies, was a subordinate of Saliceti, the Neapolitan Minister of Police. In estimating the claim of Maghella to be regarded as the founder of Carbonarism we must take into account his character and antecedents. That he was a man of great political foresight and considerable administrative ability there can be no doubt. He had, previously to his appointment at Naples, held a similar office in the Ligurian Eepublie, and then be- came acquainted with Miirat, who, on the death of Saliceti, appointed him to the vacant post, with a seat in the Council of State. In that new capacity he laboured strenuously and ably in the cause of Italian independence and constitutional government, earnestly endeavouring to detach Murat from the fortunes of Napoleon, and to induce him to proclaim the independence of Italy, and place himself at the head of the movement, which he assured him would be made for that end. The realisation of the project TEB OABBONABI. 211 was at that time feasible. The idea was broached in the Congress of Prague, and was not opposed, the Allies being disposed to welcome every means of re- sistance to the overgrown power and intolerable domination of Napoleon. The small French garri- sons could easily have been expelled, and the success of the national movement at Milan, in 1814, de- monstrated the soundness of the grounds on which MagheUa based the confidence with which he undertook to raise Lombardy in revolt, and expel Beauharnais. Murat could not be moved, however, and Maghella's representations were made the means of his ruin. The French party in the Council of State betrayed their trust and sent information to Napoleon of the propo- sitions submitted by MagheUa, who was thereupon claimed as a French subject and sent under arrest to Paris. After a vain endeavour to win him to his own interests, Napoleon placed him under the strictest police surveillance; but, towards the end of 1813, he effected his escape in a daring and romantic manner, returned to Naples, and again urged Murat to declare against his imperial brother-in-law, and raise the standard of Italian independence. The star of Napoleon was now so plainly in its declination that Murat, in the hope of preserving his dominions, cast in his lot with the Allies, and assisted in the expulsion of the French from the Peninsula. Having acquired military possession of the Papal territories, he hoped to retain them, and entrusted MagheUa with the organisation of the secular government in them. It was at this time that MagheUa, obviously with the view of revolutionising Italy in the interests of p 2 212 TSE CABBONASI. the national independence and constitutional govern- ment, under whatever circumstances migM arise, introduced the system of Carbonarism. Both the character and the position of Murat precluded re- liance upon him, and the Carbonaro organisation was an instrument which could be used to mould to the purposes of its directors, or to overturn, either a Buonaparte or a Bourbon. Maghella began by proposing a constitution for the kingdom by which the royal power would be limited, and an inducement given to the population of the other Italian States to take part in the contemplated movement. The nobility and the higher classes generally regarded his endeavours with favour, and the names of the first families in the kingdom were among the signatures to the address soliciting from Murat the oft-promised constitution. They saw their ancient privileges disappearing and their revenues diminishing, and they hoped, by means of a Parlia- ment, to transfer a portion of the royal authority to their own order. From this class and from the army, which saw with jealousy and indignation French officers of all ranks employed in great numbers, and often in preference to their own countrymen, the first members of the Carbonari were drawn. The inferior gentry of the provinces, and the rural classes generally, were hostile or indifferent to the Constitution ; and it was to remove their prejudices against innovations, and to gain the entire people by degrees to the cause which he had at heart, that Maghella resolved to introduce among them the system of Carbonarism. While Murat was amused with the idea of becoming the sovereign head of the Italian League the upper TEE OABBONABI. 213 classes were attracted by the hope of recovering their waning influence, and the middle and lower grades of society had their patriotism, their devotion, and their pecuniary interests by turns appealed to, as the Oar- bonaro leaders depicted the future glories of an inde- pendent Italy, upheld the imitation of Jesus as the religious object of the Society, and represented a large diminution of taxation as the inevitable result of the political changes which they were working to bring about. The organisation of the Carbonari was more simple than that of the llluminati, there being only two grades — Apprentices and Masters. The former con- sisted of the newly initiated members, who, at the expiration of six months, were admitted to the higher grade. All the initiated were called Good Cousins, and those who did not belong to the Society were termed Pagans. Admission to the lower grade was easily obtained, for, as nothing was trusted to the Apprentices, nothing was risked by multiplying them. The chief object was to secure a numerous and well-organised body of men, ready to obey the commands of invisible superiors, and enter, at a word, upon any enterprise. Those who objected to being initiated in a full lodge were allowed to go through the ceremony before three Grand Masters in private. Freemasons were admitted by ballot, without being subjected to the initiatory ceremonies and probations to which ordinary candidates had to conform. The interior aspect of a Carbonaro lodge was as plain and unadorned as the meeting-room of the Jacobin Club, as described by Lamartine. No car- pet covered the floor, the walls and ceiling were 214 TEE OABBONABI. merely whitewashed, and candles stuck in iron sconces against the walls diffused a dim light through the apartment. With the exception of the officers, who were seated upon plain rush-bottomed chairs, the members sat upon rude benches ranged along the sides of the room, the Masters on the left, and the Apprentices on the right. The Grand Master sat at the upper end, with the lower portion of the unhewn stem of a tree before him to serve as a table. His right hand rested upon the handle of an axe, and before him was a crucifix. On his right and left, behind similar blocks, were seated the Secretary and the Orator, whose business it was to recite the dis- courses delivered to newly initiated members, after the manner of the Ilium inati. At the lower end of the room a Master of the Ceremonies and two assistants were seated, the latter having blocks of timber before them, and being provided with axes, like the Gfrand Master and his supporters at the upper end. The axes were used for striking upon the blocks to command silence and for making signals. On the block of the Grand Master lay various articles used in the ceremony of initiation. Suspended from the ceiling, at the head of the room, were five triangular transparencies; that over the Grand Master's table containing the initials of the pa, s-words of the second grade, that on the left various Carbonaro symbols, and the three on the right the initials of the sacred words of the first grade, pre- sently to be explained. Over the bead of the Grand Master there hung, against the wall, a painting of St. Theobald, represented as a venerable-looking man TSE OABBONABI. 215 seated on a block of timber before a rude but sur- rounded by trees. The candidate for initiation was brought in blind- folded, and when the Secretary had taken down his name, occupation or profession, and residence, he was questioned by the Grand Master as to his knowledge of the duties of humanity and his capacity to perform them. His replies being satisfactory, the Grand Master directed that he should make the first journey; upon which he was led out by the two assistants of the Master of the Ceremonies, and impressed, by the rustling of branches of trees and the simulated howl- ing of wolves, with the idea that he was traversing a forest. On being led back to the presence of the Q-rand Master, he was informed that the journey he had made was symbolical of the progress of humanity towards virtue. The sounds he had heard, and the obstacles he had encountered, were intended to indi- cate that virtue can be attained only by perseverance in good works, under the guidance of reason. The Grand Master then directed that he should make the second journey, in which he heard the crackling of flames, and felt their fiery glow upon his countenance as he seemed to be urged through them by his con- ductors. Then he was again led back to the lodge- room, and informed that the fire through which he had passed was symbolical of the persecutions which virtue has to endure, and of the sacrifices which are necessary to efiace from the heart the stains of the seven capital sins. If the aspirant did not shrink from this preparatory ordeal, and was willing to take the oath of secrecy — 216 THE OABBONABI. the violation of which he was forewarned would be punished with death — he was made to kneel upon a white linen cloth, in which position, and amidst solemn silence, the oath was administered by the Grand Master. " I swear upon this steel, the avenging instrument of the perjured," he was made to say, with his right hand resting upon an axe, " scrupulously to keep the secrets of this Society, and neither to write, print, or engrave anything concerning it, without having obtained the permission of the Grand Master. I swear to help my Good Cousins, even with ray blood, if necessary, and not to attempt anything against the honour of their families. I consent, if I perjure myself, to have my body cut in pieces, and then burned, and that my ashes may be scattered to the winds, and my name held up to the execration of all the Good Cousins throughout the world. So help me God !" To which all present responded, "Amen." The aspirant was then commanded to rise, and asked what he wished for, to which, prompted by the assistants, he replied, "Light." The Grand Master then struck the block with his axe, the bandage was removed from the candidate's eyes, and the axes of the assistants gleamed before them. "These axes," said the Grand Master, "will surely put you to death if you become perjured. On the other hand, they will strike in your defence, should need be, if you remain faithful. In the name of the Great and Divine Grand Master of the Universe, and of St. Theobald, our protector, I declare you a member of the Society of the Carbonari." . TEE CABBONABI. 217 He was then instructed in the secrets and symbols of the Society. He was told that the axes were the implements with which the Carbonari pursued their labours in the forests. The tricoloured scarves worn by the Masters expressed the red fire, the blue smoke, and the black charcoal; and were also emblematical of the three cardinal virtues, the black representing Faith, the blue Hope, the red Charity, which were the sacred words of the first grade. The white linen upon which he had been received had been blanched by maceration and labour, as by self-denial and good works humanity is purified and ennobled. Again, as linen envelops us when the natural light first shines upon us, so did it receive the aspirant at the moment of his mental illumination. The crucifix foreshadowed the labours, the persecutions, the death that threaten those who aspire to virtue. It was a memorial also of the death of Christ, the spiritual Grand Master, who willingly suffered death for the salvation of man, and whose example all Good Cousins would endeavour to imitate. There was no pass-word in the first grade ; the grip was given by pressing the middle finger upon the right thumb of the Good Cousin saluted. As among the Illuminatii an initiatory discourse was then delivered, the general tenour of which is probably expressed in one that was found upon one of the conspirators of Macerata in 1817. "Nature," it was set forth in this discourse, " when she created man, intended him to be free. The earliest societies of men, hoping for increased happiness and security, entrusted the command of their forces to one person for their common defence. He, instead of protecting and defending them, became their oppressor. Free- 218 TEE OABBONARI. dom disappeared, and the rights of man were dethroned by despotism. The laws of truth and justice were subverted, and the just and good were persecuted and oppressed. But a few wise and good men, who still cherished in their hearts that morality, the principles of which are immutable and eternal, while they wept over these evils in secret, imparted their principles and views to a few persons worthy of the distinction. Their maxims, transmitted from generation to gene- ration, became the source of that true philosophy which never can be altered or corrupted; and it is in the school founded upon them that men are taught equally to maintain their own rights and to respect those of others. The mysteries of Mithra in Persia, of Isis in Egypt, of Eleusis in Greece, of the temples yet to be built, and the light yet to be diffused, are all so many rays proceeding from the same centre, and moving in an orbit whose field is the immensity of wisdom. Carbonarism is not the last or the least of the various societies that have proceeded from this school. It presents itself without mystery to those who know how to understand it, receives them into its peaceful bosom, and elevates them to the con- templation of Nature, to the love of man collectively, to the hatred of oppression and despotism, to the knowledge of good, and of all that is useful to society and confirmatory of the principles of truth and justice. It teaches in its lodges the true end of existence, and gives rules of conduct for social life. It points out the means for diffusing the light of truth, and of disseminating the principles of political equality. It is to the sacred rights of equality that the Good Cousin must especially attach himself." TSE OABBONABI. 219 There is considerable similarity between the prin- ciples set forth in this discourse and those taught in the orations made on like occasions in the lodges of the lUuminati ; while the idea of their descent from the early ages of the world, through successive gene- rations of wise and good men, forcibly recalls to the mind the traditions of the Freemasons. It seems probable, indeed, from the exemption from initiation and probation which was accorded to Freemasons who desired to become Carbonari, that Maghella was a Freemason, as the founders of the lUaminati and the Philadelphians are known to have been. The ceremony of closing a lodge was performed by the Grand Master inquiring the hour, and the Secre- tary informing him that the sun no longer lighted the forest. The Grand Master then rose, and, announcing that the/hour had arrived when the Carbonari rested from their labours, called upon the Good Cousins to perform a triple salutation : — " To the Divine Grand Master of the Universe — to St. Theobald, our patron and protector — to me." This being done, he gave the signal for dispersing in these words : — " I declare our labours ended ; retire in peace to your huts in the great forest." The certificate of afBUation which was furnished to every member was an oblong document, embellished on the margin with Carbonaro symbols, such as axes, faggots, &c., and ran as follows, the blanks being filled up with the date and the name, &c., of the member : — " In the name of the Great and Divine Grand Master of the Universe, and our protector, St. Theo- bald. Being met together this day of in the year of true light in a strongly illuminated place, far from the eyes of Pagans, was duly 2aO T3B CABBONABI. initiated and received as a [/lere Apprentice or Master was inserted] Carbonaro in the Lodge of \Jiere was inserted the name of the locality]'' To this was affixed the names of the officiating Grand Master, Master Adept (or Master of the Ceremonies), Assist- ants, and Secretary. Above the certificate was a female figure, representing Liberty treading upon a serpent, and holding in her right hand a spear, sur- mounted by the Phrj'gian cap, while her left rested upon the Eoman fasces and axe. On one side of the certificate were figures emblematic of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and on the other those of Honour, Virtue, and Probity. After a probation of six months, the Apprentice underwent a new examination in the social duties, and was initiated into the second grade. This second initiation consisted of a dramatic representation of the trial and exposure of Jesus, as recorded in the Gospels. The Apprentice was made to pray, to drink of the cup of bitterness, to wear a white robe, to be crowned with thorns, to hold a reed in his hand, and to bear a cross.' Then the Grand Master and the two assist- ants, who represented Pilate, Caiaphas, and Herod, pardoned him, at the intercession of the assembled Carbonari ; and he was made to kneel down on his left knee, with his right hand on the Grand Master's axe, and take the following oath, which is a recapitu- lation of that of the Apprentices, with additions : — " I promise and swear, before the Grand Master of the Universe, upon my word of honour, and upon this steel, the avenging instrument for the perjured, to keep scrupulously and inviolably the secrets of Car- bonarism, and never to talk of those of the Appren- THE CABBONAItl. 221 tices before Pagans, nor tliose of the Masters before tLe Apprentices. Also not to initiate any person, nor to establish a lodge, without permission, and in a jnst and perfect manner ; not to write, print, or engrave the secrets ; to help, even with my blood, if necessary, the Good Cousins Carbonari, and to attempt nothing against the honour of their families. I con- sent, if I perjure myself, to have my body cut in pieces, then burned, and the ashes scattered to the wind, that my name may remain in execration with all the Good Cousins Carbonari spread over the face of the earth. So help me God !" He was then girded with the tricoloured scarf, and instructed that the sacred words of the second grade were Honour, Virtue, and Probity, the pass-word Fern, and the countersign Nettle. The Grand Lodge of the Carbonari was composed of the more distinguished members and of deputies from the provincial lodges, and was formed in the city of Naples, where it was intended to be permanently established, as affording the most effectual means of concealment. It was the function of the Grand Lodge to grant patents, or charters of organisation, to new lodges, to make new laws and regulations, and to confirm or reject such as were submitted by pro- vincial lodges for its approval. It was also a court of appeal in all disputes between lodges or members, and formed for some time the centre from which radiated all the revolutionary movements of which Italy was the scene. Two registers were kept by the Secretary of the Grand Lodge, called respectively the Golden Book and the Black Book. In the first were regis- tered all the laws and regulations of the Society, the 222 THE CABBONABI. elections of all the officers, the opening of all new lodges, and the minutes of such debates as were of general interest to the Society. The Black Book was divided into two parts : in the first were inscribed the names, ages, professions or occupations, and residences of all rejected candidates for admission into the Society, with the names of the lodges in which they had been proposed, and the number of votes by which they were rejected ; the second part contained the like particulars of every member who had been, ex- pelled from the Society for betraying its secrets. When a Carbonaro was guilty of perjury, a slip of paper bearing his name was burned in the presence of all the members of the lodge to which he belonged, his memory solemnly devoted to general execration, and notice of his expulsion sent to every lodge, where it was aflBxed to the wall, after being read by the Grand Master to the assembled Good Cousins. Per- jury^ however, was not the only ofience of which the penal code of the Carbonari took cognisance. Habi- tual association with vicious characters, gambling, drunkenness, abandonment of family, and general dis- soluteness of morals, were severally punished by sus- pension for a period of from two months to a year, according as the offence was aggravated or compara- tively venial. Any attempt upon the honour of female relatives of Carbonari was punished by expul- sion from the Society ; the seduction of female servants of Carbonari by suspension for a term of from twelve months to three years ; and adultery by suspension for a period of from two to six years. No other society, with members so widely distributed, ever TSU OABBONABI. 223 sought to defcacli them so completely from the State by means of a code of laws so distinct in its form, and so much at variance with that in legal force. Its members were even forbidden to refer cases of litiga- tion to the ordinary tribunals until they had been brought before the Grrand Lodge, and reasons assigned for permitting a further investigation in a Pagan court. Such being the constitution and code of this formi- dable Society, let us now see in what manner, and with what success, its operations were conducted. Next to the nobles and the military, the priests seem at first to have been enrolled in the largest numbers, many of that order being actuated by the same feel- ings and views as certain of the French and German clergy at a later date, and promulgating, by every means in their power, the principles which Carbo- narism was instituted to uphold and advance. Among all classes, however, the afSliations soon increased' with astonishing rapidity. In a few months from the opening of the Grand Lodge, the Carbonari numbered more than twenty-five thousand. In some of the towns of Calabria and the Abruzzi, the whole of the adult male inhabitants were initiated.* The feeling of devotional ardour diffused among the Carbonari, and the circulation of a document purport- ing to be a Bull of Pius VII. encouraging them, induced a belief that they were protected by that Pontiff; and so convinced was Murat of the truth of the report that one of his first requests, when he met * Memoirs of the Carbonari. 224 THE OABBONABI. the Pope at Bologna, was, that lie would rescind the obnoxious Bull. Pius assured him that the document was a forgery, and, on his return to Rome, fulminated a Bull against secret societies, including in that cate- gory the Freemasons and the Jacobins. It was clearly the policy of Murat to support the Carbonari, or rather to take away from the Society the reason of its existence by granting the boon of consti- tutional government ; but he hesitated, and the Grand Lodge sent emissaries to Palermo to treat with Ferdi- nand on such a basis as was submitted to the Count of Provence by the Philadelphians. The Cavaliere de Medici accepted those terms, on behalf of his royal master ;* and Bourbonist emissaries visited Calabria and. the Abruzzi, where they succeeded by means of promises in the name of Ferdinand, and money fur- nished for the purpose by Lord William Bentinck,t in inducing some of the Carbonari to raise the stan- dard of revolt, and pronounce for Ferdinand, "the Constitutional King!" These desultory outbreaks were suppressed without bloodshed, however, the leniency of Murat on the occasion proceeding probably from the fear of rousing the resentment of an associa- tion already formidable, and to which he might yet be indebted for the maintenance of his throne. Had Murat possessed the qualities requisite for successful government in the circumstances in which he was placed, he would first have secured the support of the Carbonari by granting a constitution, and then * Pepe's Narrative of Affairs at Naples in 1820-21 t Memoii-s of the Duke of Otranto. THE GABBONABI. 225 raised the standard of Italian unity and independ- ence. But he reversed the propter order of action, and by that blunder sacrificed his last chance of retaining the crown. On the return of Napoleon from Elba, he marched upon Eome, forced the Pope to fly, and commenced hostilities against the Austrians by a sudden attack on Cesena. He succeeded in advancing to the Po, seeking by proclamations to rouse the Italians in the cause of national independence; but the Carbonari had read his doom, and his precipitate retreat after the battle of Tolentino was a necessity brought about by their influence as much as by the arms of the Austrians. On the 1st of May, Ferdi- nand IV. had issued from Palermo a proclamation to the Neapolitans, promising a Constitution, and an- nouncing that "the People will be the Sovereign, and the Monarch only the depositary of the laws which shall be decided by the Constitution." This example was, with fatal tardiness, followed by Murat. On the 13th of May, when he was retreating rapidly before Bianchi and Nugent, he sent to Naples the desired and long-deferred Constitution, dated Eimini, March the 30th — the date of his attack on the Austrians at Cesena — " a tardy and ridiculous ac- knowledgment of long persisted-in misgovernment," says Maceroni, who adds that if the Constitution had been granted a year before, the throne of Murat would have been safe, inasmuch as a Parliament would have prevented the war.* It was now too late ; the proclamation fell dead ; and so d-apid was the course * Memoirs of Francis Maceroni. VOIi. T. Q 226 THE CABBONABI. of events that the Austrians entered Naples on the 22nd, Ferdinand was restored, and Murat forced to fly. By a secret article of the treaty which had been concluded between I'erdinand and the Emperor of Austria, it was stipulated* that the former should not " introduce into his Grovernment any principles irre- concilable with those adopted by His Imperial Majesty in the government of his Italian provinces." Absolute government was the condition, therefore, upon which Ferdinand held his throne, and his tendencies and affinities were entirely in accordance with that system. Agitated as the South of Italy was at that time by the operations of the Carbonari, the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty, under such conditions, could not fail to be the signal for a reign of terror. Maghella was arrested, and hurried off by the Austrians to a fortress in Hungary ; and though he was claimed as a subject of Piedmont, under the new territorial arrangements, it was only to be imprisoned twelve months in the fortress of Fenestrelles. He was succeeded in the Ministry of Police by the Prince of Canosa, whose first act of office was the revival, under the name of the Calderari (braziers), of the Association of the Holy Faith, instituted by Cardinal Ruffo, and recruited from the brigands and lazzaroni who had been con- cerned in the sanguinary scenes of 1799. The members of this horrible association swore to obey the orders of the founder, to defend the Catholic faith, and to exterminate all Jansenists, Molinists, lUu- minatists, Freemasons, and Carbonari. Between the Colletta, Historia di Napoli. THE OABBONAHI. 227 last-mentioned and the Calderari, therefore, an im- placable hatred arose. Disturbances ensued, and the public tranquillity was often endangered by tumults and affrays arising out of the relentless hostility of the rival societies.* The Prince of Canosa distributed among the Calderari twenty thousand muskets, procured from the State arsenals, or purchased for the purpose, and the lives and property of the inhabitants of Naples were thus placed completely at the mercy of the vilest horde that afflicted any European city. Murders and robberies were of almost daily occurrence, the victims invariably being persons known to hold liberal political views. Two of Canosa's colleagues in the Administration, horrified and disgusted by the out- rages perpetrated by the Calderari, urged their suppression; but the Minister openly avowed the policy of protecting and favouring them, as a means of exterminating the Carbonari. The latter took additional precautions for their safety, drew the bands of their union closer, and renewed their oaths of mutual assistance and defence. The terror inspired by the Calderari, the dread of a terrible retaliation by * " The Prince of Canosa, called to the Ministry of Police, no sooner became possessed of a power -which may become as danp;erous as it is useful, than he conceived the fatal idea of abandoning the system of moderation which had been so prudently adopted. He granted to the lowest class of the people the right of carrying arms, which had before been strictly prohibited. He armed men who were thirsting for blood, and always ready to enrich themselves with the spoils of the more civilised. But he looked upon the latter as enemies, because they possessed sen- timents different from his own. A party man himself, he protected parties. Bands of armed brigands overran the country, giving out that they were the agents of the Minister of Police, and under his special protection." — Count Orloff, Memowes swr le Boyawme da Naples. Q 2 228 THE OASBONABI. the Carbonari, and the representations of some of his Ministers, at length induced the King to deprive Canosa of his office, and banish him from his dominions. The Prince left Naples in June, 1816, and Fer- dinand, about the same time, gave General Nunziante, the military commandant of Calabria, a secret com- mission to collect information respecting the numbers and organisation of the Carbonari, with a view to their suppression. Nunziante succeeded in corrupting a member of the Society ; but shortly afterwards the corpse of the man was found, pierced with several wounds, and with a paper affixed to it, addressed to the General, warning him to relinquish the under- taking, unless he desired to share the fate of the perjurer and traitor. Nunziante thereupon reported to the King that the means at his disposal were wholly inadequate for the suppression of the Car- bonari, whose number in Calabria alone he estimated at between fifty and sixty thousand. During the period between the restoration through- out Italy of the old regime and the revolution of 1820, several secret societies sprung up in different parts of the Peninsula, which, as they all pursued the same object, may be conveniently included in this chapter. The first of these seems to have been the Guelphs, which in 1816 had its Central Council at Bologna, and Provincial Councils at Fermo, Macerata, and Ancona. In the autumn of that year, a deputation from the Central Council had an interview with the officers of the Carbonaro Lodge at Fermo, at which a plan was submitted arid approved for the union of all the secret societies in the Papal States, which were divided for TEE OABBONABI. 229 that purpose into three divisions — namely, Bologna, Torli, and Ancona. These were subdivided into primary and secondary centres. Bologna was a primary centre in itself; the Forli division was divided into the primary centres of Torli, Ravenna, and Ferrara ; and the Ancona division into those of Ancona, Macerata, and Fermo. Each Society pre- served its own constitution and organisation ; but each lodge was required to send to the Central Council at Bologna a monthly statement of its members, their names, ages, and rank, profession, or occupation. The Carbonari were admitted without initiation into the lodges of the Gruelphs, as the Freemasons were to those of the Carbonari. A system of secret corre- spondence was invented, by the substitution of certain mystical words for others of real meaning, and was used for the communication of the orders of the Cen- tral Council at Bologna to the Divisional Councils at Forli and Ancona, and thence to the officers of the primary and secondary centres. No connexion can be traced at this time between the Carbonari of Naples and those of the Papal States, which had a distinct organisation. The Grand Lodge of the Eoman Carbonari was established at Ancona ; the device on their seal was a hand grasping a dagger ; and in the initiation of members daggers were substituted for the axes used by the Neapolitan Society. That they were in communication seems probable, however, from the renewed activity of both aU through the spring and summer of lb 17. It seems, too, from an allusion in the correspondence between Monti, the Grand Master of the Carbonaro Lodge at Ferrara, and Count Fattiboni, to the " grand 230 TSU GABBONABI. dignitaries " of Milan, that either the Carbonari or the Guelphs, or both, had then extended their organi- sation into Lombardy. During the spring months of 1817, the lodges of the Gruelphs and the Roman Carbonari rang with denunciations of the temporal power of the Pope, with calls to arms, and threats of death against those who should become perjured. The Pope was seriously ill, and his expected death was to be the signal for a revolt, the plan of which had been drawn up by Monti, and approved by the Central Council at Bologna. The movement was to commence at Macerata, where the Gruelphs and Carbonari of the district were to assemble in the night, when the barracks were to be attacked, the troops who refused to join them disarmed and confined, the prison broken open, and all the prisoners able to bear arms made to join them. Pockets discharged from the public square of Macerata, and four cauldrons of pitch blazing on the summit of a tower, were to have announced to the other towns of the district the success of the enterprise, and flaming beacons on appointed heights were to have communicated the result to the Central Council at Bologna. The pea- santry were to have been drawn into the town on the following morning by the tolling of all the bells, and then the establishment of the Eepublican form of government, with Count Grallo as consul, was to be solemnly proclaimed. The recovery of the Pope disconcerted the scheme of the conspirators, but it was not abandoned ; and the 24th of June was finally fixed for the enterprise. A proclamation, calling upon the Eomans to arm for THU GABBONABI. 231 the recovery of their ancient liberties, was extensively circulated, and at midnight on the 24th the Guelphs and Carbonari of the district began to assemble within and without the town. The incautious discharge of two muskets at a sentry near the walls, who observed them, gave the alarm to the authorities, and the troops immediately turned out. The contingents of Fermo and Ancona not having arrived, the insurgents deemed it advisable to separate, and reserve the execu- tion of the plot for another occasion. The police lost no time in instituting a strict inquiry into the events of the night, and some of the conspirators were imme- diately arrested. Owing, however, ' to the desire of the Papal Government to become acquainted with all the ramifications of the conspiracy, in order to crush future attempts at revolution the more easily, the arrest of the principal persons implicated was delayed until November, when they were seized simultaneously in their respective localities, and confined in the Castle of St. Angelo. Simultaneously with these movements in the Papal States the project of a revolution in Naples was con- ceived by the Carbonaro leaders of that kingdom. Gagliardi, the Grand Master of the Salerno lodge, conferred on this subject, in May, with his coadjutors, Perdinando Arcovito (a relative of the General of that name), Michele Blasiis, and the brothers Abatemarco ; and afterwards went into Calabria to confer with Einaldi, a Carmelite monk, and ascertain how far the Carbonari of that province were prepared for an insur- rection. The brothers Abatemarco went to Naples, and had an interview, amidst the ruins of Pompeii, with a leading Carbonaro of the capital, Eosario 232 THB OABBONABI. Maschiaroli. Circular letters were at the same time despatched to all the lodges throughout the kingdom. These conferences and inquiries resulted in the dis- covery that the province of Principato Citra alone vras sufficiently organised for a rising, and the out- break was deferred until the provinces should be better prepared. In the meantime the Carbonari had excited the apprehensions of the Neapolitan Government by an extensive distribution of printed papers, in which they demanded a constitution from the King, and incited the people to refuse payment of all taxes in the event of his refusal. Intonti, who had been an attorney at Foggia, the chief town of the Capitinata, in which province the Carbonari were then most active, was despatched by the Grovernment to that place with unlimited judicial powers, even to the extent of executing suspected persons without trial. Fortunately he preferred milder and more moderate measures, and he did not even acquaint the local authorities with the nature of his commission. Being known to many of the leading Liberals of the district, he invited .them to a conference, and represented to them that it was impossible for the King to grant a constitution, as neither the Emperor of Austria, whose troops were still on the frontier, nor the other Powers of the Holy Alliance, would consent to such a measure. It was supposed to be owing to Intonti's moderate and pacific measures that tranquillity was .preserved, both the projected revolt and the reasons for its post- ponement remaining a profound secret. In Calabria and the Abruzzi, however, three new associations of a secret nature appeared at this time THE GABBONABI. 233 as offshoots from Carbonarism — namely, the Philadel- phians, the Eeformed European Patriots, and the Decisi. The organisation of the two former Societies was military. The Philadelphians were divided into camps of from three to four hundred men, the Ee- formed European Patriots into squadrons, each con- taining from forty to sixty members. There were no fewer than a hundred and seventeen camps and squadrons of these two Societies -in the district of Lecce alone. Their meetings were held by night, in solitary houses or suppressed and deserted monas- teries, which were carefully guarded by sentries ; and there, too, they were drilled until, growing bolder by degrees, they performed their military exercises and evolutions by daylight and in the open air. The seal used by both these Societies bore the figure of Liberty holding the Phrygian cap on a pike, and leaning upon the Eoman fasces and axe. The Ee- formed European Patriots had also a second seal, with the device of a sun enclosed within two triangles. The Decisi, or Decided, were less numerous, but their desperate and fanatical character inspired with terror all who were brought into collision with them. Their decisions, as their local affiliated Societies were termed, embraced men who had been expelled from the Carbonari for their crimes, and those who were pursued with unrelenting vigour by the Government, and could find safety only in uniting themselves to others of equally desperate fortunes. The symbols which appear upon their patents and their certificates of afiiliation — lightning darting from a cloud and striking a crown and a mitre ; the Phrygian cap upon 234 TEE CABBONABI. a skull, between two axes ; a skull and cross-bones — suiSciently characterise this terrible Association, whose members maintained themselves by plundering the houses of those who were obnoxious to them, and used the dagger and the torch to avenge their wrongs upon their enemies. Among their officers was a Eegistrar of the Dead, and a register of the names and conditions of their victims is said to have actually been kept.* Emboldened by their numbers and the apathy of the local authorities, these three Societies began, towards the close of 1817, to send out armed bands to wreak their vengeance upon their enemies, and plunder their houses. Some of the less wealthy proprietors, and even of the inferior nobility, secretly aided and abetted them, actuated by the double motive of hatred of the Government and the desire of preserving their own property. As the superior nobility and the opulent proprietors were regarded by the Government with distrust, these were exposed to plunder and outrage equally from the secret societies and the bands of ruffians organised by General Pastori, commandant of Calabria, and the Marquis of Predicatelli, intendant of Lecce, in accord- ance with the example of the Prince of Canosa and the Calderari. The condition of Calabria was thus rendered most deplorable. At the beginning of 1818, when the number of persons affiliated to these three Societies was estimated at twenty thousand, robberies were daily committed by armed bands, and assassi- nation was a crime of frequent perpetration. The * Memoirs of the Carbonari. THE OABBONABI. 235 authorities were powerless, even when they were not timid or corrupt ; for the secret societies had many- members among the military and the police, and neither force could at all times be relied upon for the performance of its duty. The evil at length increased to such an extent that the Government, roused to the imperative neces- sity of doing something, dismissed Pastori and Pre- dicatelli, and replaced the former by an Englishman, General Church, to whom power was given to raise a Foreign Legion, and act with vigour against the armed bands of the secret societies. The new commandant divided his force, composed chiefly of Germans, Swiss, and Albanians, into three columns, which scoured the country in all directions, gradually narrowing the circle of their operations until the insurgent bands were surrounded in and around the towns of Grottaglia, Santo Marzano, and Prancavilla. Their numbers lessened, as some were shot down bv their pursuers, and others found means to return to their homes ; but a remnant still held together under a bold and able leader. Giro Annichiarico, a priest, who had been condemned to fifteen years' imprison- ment for murder, but had escaped from prison after undergoing four years' confinement, and was a mem- ber of both the Decisi and the Eeformed European Patriots. On finding themselves between their pursuers and the sea, the desperate band turned at Santo Marzano, and attacked a detachment of the Foreign Legion ; but was repulsed, and compelled to fly into the intricacies of the eastern spur of the Apennines. There they took up a strong position, and twice 236 TEE GABBONABI. repulsed the company of Captain Montori; but at length they were again put to flight, and five of the band, being captured, were executed at Francavilla. The black flag of the band also fell into the hands of Captain Montori, and was presented to the King. The execution of the prisoners provoked a tumult at Francavilla, which was not suppressed without bloodshed; and at Santo Marzano the militia refused to co-operate with the Legion until General Church threatened to give the ' town up to pillage. Hunted from place to place, Annichiarico, with the remnant of his band, at last took refuge in a farmhouse ten miles from Francavilla, where, after a desperate and protracted resistance, he surrendered to Major Bianchi. He was executed at Francavilla in the presence of all the inhabitants, who preserved a gloomy silence, and evidently accorded him their sympathy. Ten more of the band were executed at the same place on the following day; and a military commission, presided over by Greneral Church, afterwards tried two hun- dred and twenty-seven persons, nearly half of whom, being convicted of murder or robbery with violence, were executed, and their severed heads exposed before the churches. The conspirators of Macerata were not brought to trial until October, 1818, when Count Grallo, an advocate named Castellano, a merchant named Papis, an ex-gendarme named Eivas, and a soldier named Casletti, were condemned to death ; and Count Fatti- boni, a notary named Sampaolesi, and Cottoloni, the Carbonaro secretary at Macerata, to imprisonment for life. These sentences were commuted by Pius VII., however, into imprisonment for life and for ten years, THE GABBONABI. 237 the accused being likewise condemned to pay the costs of the judicial proceedings. It appears from the report of these proceedings, published by order of the Papal Government, that all the secret societies of Italy were supposed to be de- rived from Freemasonry. " We had become fully acquainted," says the report, " with the Masonic sect during past calamities, which owe their origin to it. That of the Carbonari was called forth just as those calamities were about to cease, as if to increase and perpetuate them. It had its origin and principal seat at Naples, whence it spread into some provinces of the Papal States ; and its inauspicious influence had been particularly felt in the Marches. While, in the midst of general peace, this Society was making progress in several cities of Dalmatia, other secret associations, no less audacious, established themselves. The Guelphs extended themselves into Lombardy from the northern provinces of the States of the Church ; the Eepublican Brother Protectors, of French and Lombard origin, in- sinuated themselves into some parts of the Marches ; the Adelphi lurked in great secrecy throughout Pied- mont; and, lastly, the Society of the Black Pin attempted to introduce itself into Italy from France. These different denominations, which succeeded each other, were artfully continued, not only for the pur- pose of deepening their secrecy, but to enable their chiefs, whenever it suited their purpose, to get rid of such members as change of times or circumstances had rendered obnoxious to suspicion. They also served to inform all the initiated at once of whatever was going on in the way of innovation or reform, and to keep them in constant activity, in order that they 238 te:e cabbonabi. might be ready and ardent to support, on the first opportunity, a political change agreeable to their wishes. In fact, the adherence of any individual to one of the secret societies suffices to ensure his recep- tion, with a corresponding rank, into all those that may be formed afterwards, so that one sect is always merging in another while procuring new proselytes. That they are all, however, no other than so many ramifications of Masonry, some of the best informed sectaries themselves allow ; and none of them difier essentially as to the object which they have in view^ — namely, independence and constitutional go- vernment." During the two years following the abortive con- spiracy of Macerata and the commission of Intonti in the Capitinata, the Carbonari were active throughout the whole of the Peninsula, and by the spring of 1820 their lodges were established in all the cities of Lom- bardy and Piedmont, as well as in the kingdom of Naples and the dominions of the Pope. The Spanish revolution raised their enthusiasm to the highest degree of fervour, and measures were immediately taken for revolutionising the principal of the States into which Italy was unhappily divided. Conferences were held at Naples in March and April, at which it was resolved to concentrate a large force on the capi- tal, seize the King and his family, and hold them as hostages until Ferdinand consented to grant a consti- tution similar to that which had been wrung from his namesake of Spain. Little resistance was anticipated from the army, in which the Carbonari counted be- tween two and three thousand members of all ranks TEE CABBONABI. 239 including a troop of dragoons and a battery of the Queen's regiment of artillery. In order to be assured of the support of the pro- vinces, Gragliardi went to Aversa, and had a conference with Acerbo, a captain of the Queen's dragoons, and Forfanti, a captain of militia, both of whom embraced the proposition with the utmost ardour. Bologna, a zealous and intrepid lieutenant of dragoons, visited Nocera and Salerno, and received the assurance that the Carbonari of these towns would march upon the capital whenever they received the orders of the Grand Lodge. During May the greatest activity prevailed among the Carbonari, and frequent meetings were held at Gagliardi's lodgings in Naples. On the 23rd a final consultation was held at the house of one Padula, a member of the Society, when a committee of seven was appointed to arrange the mode of action ; and on the following day the committee met at Gagliardi's lodgings, and fixed the rising for the night of the 39th. Unfortunately, however, for their im- mediate success, a newly initiated member, who had been present at the meeting of the 23rd, revealed the plot to the police, and on, the night of the 26th nine- teen of the conspirators, including Bologna, were arrested. Gagliardi and some others, those who were most deeply implicated, fled on learning the arrest of their associates, owing their escape, however, to the circumstance of their names having escaped the memory of the man who betrayed them. The conspirators now made Nocera their head- quarters, and fixed the night of the 10th of June for the execution of their enterprise. Gagliardi had a 240 THE OABBONABI. conference with Menechini, a priest, and Morelli and Silvati, lieutenants of a cavalry regiment stationed at Nola, all able and active members of the Society ; and these accompanied him to Aversa, where they con- ferred with Acerbo, and other officers of the Queen's dragoons. Circular letters were sent to all the lodges, to prepare them for the movement ; and Morelli went to Naples to make the final arrangements there.* It had been a great point with the conspirators to secure the leadership of a General, and General Arcovito had at one time been expected to put himself at their head. They were now hoping for the adhesion of General Vairo, and their disappointment in that respect was the cause, or one of the causes, of the further post- ponement of their enterprise until the 1st of July. General Pepe, in whom Ferdinand and his Minis- ters had unbounded confidence, was a Carbonaro, but had been careful not to commit himself prematurely, on the principle laid down by him in his memoirs, that " a man who finds himself at the head of a party ought carefully to avoid exposing his life in every passing skirmish." He held himself always prepared, however, and he was at this time in communication with Morelli and Silvati, but waiting until the success of the movement was assured. On the 1st of July the troop of cavalry in which Morelli and Salvati held commissions left Nola, and was joined at Monteforte by Menechini, who there raised the standard of revolt, with the cry of " God, the King, and the Constitu- tion \" The National Guards fraternised with the * Oenno Storioo sui Patti che ianno proceduto e prodotto il Movi- mento del Battaglione Saoro di Nola. THE GABBONAUI. 241 dragoons, and they marched to Avellino, where the local militia joined them ; and the Constitution was proclaimed amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants. The news of this movement created the utmost con- sternation in the minds of Ferdinand and his Minis- ters. General Campana was despatched immediately to Salerno, upon which the insurgents were said to be marching ; and General Carascosas followed with all the troops that could be collected. As soon, how- ever, as the troops saw the symbols of the Carbonari on the flags of the insurgents, it became evident that they could not be depended upon, and they were led back to the capital. There the Court and its supporters were smitten with confusion and dismay, while the greater part of the inhabitants received the news of the revolt with the utmost enthusiasm. A numerous deputation of officers waited upon General Pepe, and besought him to head the movement for the Constitution, assuring him of the support of the entire army. The General consented, put himself at the head of a cavalry regi- ment which had already pronounced for the Constitu- tion, and set out for Avellino, where he was received with enthusiasm and voted Generalissimo by acclama- tion. Naples continued in a state of ferment and disorder from the 2nd till the 6th, the entire military force declaring for the Constitution, crowds sur- rounding the royal palace vociferously demanding it, and the municipality and the professors of the uni- versity urging the King to yield to the popular voice. On the 6th Ferdinand executed a secret convention with Pepe, and resigned the functions of sovereignty to his son, the Duke of Calabria, as Vicar-General of VOL. I. R 242 THE OABBONABI. the kingdom; and the Duke issued a proclamation conceding, with certain reservations, a Constitution similar to that which had been promulgated in Spain. The uncertain attitude of the King and the reser- vations of the Duke of Calabria inspired uneasiness and dissatisfaction ; and this feeling was not appeased by Ferdinand's ratification of the Duke's undertaking, with the reservation of such modifications of the Spanish Constitution as might be made by a legally convoked assembly of the people's representatives. On the following day, however, the Duke accepted the Constitution unconditionally, and on the 9th General Pepe returned to Naples at the head of the troops, the National Guards, and the armed Carbonari ; and the King swore, in the presence of all the chief civil and military authorities of the kingdom, to main- tain the new order of things. All authority imme- diately passed into the hands of the Carbonari. The Ministers resigned, and were succeeded by ardent Liberals. General Pepe replaced the Austrian General, Nugent, in the command of the army. A Carbonaro guard was organised, and was of great service in maintaining order, which was seriously menaced on more than one occasion. These changes gave general satisfaction, which the inhabitants of Naples testified by great rejoicings and a general illumination. Menechini became the most popular and influential man in the kingdom. Songs in his praise were sung in the streets, and his lithographed portrait was sold by thousands. His popularity enabled him to inter- pose with success, on more than one occasion, on behalf of the King and the ex-Ministers, whose con- THE CABBONABL 243 duct was regarded with suspicion. When several persons were killed in an affray which was supposed to have been instigated by the Court, and a furious mob threatened the palace, Menechini calmed the rising storm. Again, when the Carbonari menaced the ex-Ministers, Medici and Tommasi, on the Field of Mars, it was he who disarmed their resentment. His influence declined rapidly, however, and he retired to Messina. Greneral Pepe was shortly afterwards superseded by General CoUetta, on the ground of his having, when sent to restore order at Palermo, encou- raged the Separatist party in Sicily to hope that their demand would be conceded. Though the intervention of Austria was to have been calculated upon from the first, and it was the more important therefore that the Carbonari, who had had the entire direction of the revolution, should be united, it soon became evident that there were two parties in the Society, differing as to the ulterior results to be obtained. The majority considered that their mission was accomplished when the Constitu- tion was proclaimed; but there was an energetic minority desirous of establishing a Eepublic. Tumults and dissensions agitated the Basilicata throughout July and August, and the Eepublicans threatened to march upon the capital. The cry of imbecility and treason was raised against the Constitutional party, and the Eepublicans sent emissaries to Naples to excite the Carbonari against the Government. They were unsuccessful, and Paladini, Vecchiarelli, and Maenza — the leaders of the ultras of the capital — believmg their strength to be in the provinces, visited Salerno on the 2nd of September, and Avellino on the E 2 244 THE CABBONABI. 5tli, to concert a Eepublican rising ; and, returning to Naples on the night of the 6th, were immediately arrested. They had destroyed their papers, and con- sequently, after an imprisonment of more than two months in the Castle of St. Elmo, they were discharged for want of evidence to criminate them. These differences had probably some influence on the question which at this time agitated the lodges of Principato Citra, as to whether they should continue their connexion with the Grand Lodge at Naples. A committee was appointed to consider the question, and it was decided that delegates should be sent to the Grand Lodge to demand a more extensive repre- sentation of the provincial lodges ; and that, if this was not acceded to, they should negotiate with other districts for the election of a provincial Grand Lodge. The latter course was ultimately adopted, and the provincial Grand Lodge fixed at Salerno. During the autumn robberies with, violence were so frequent in Naples, notwithstanding all the exertions of the Government to prevent disorder, that Eicciardi, the new Minister of Justice, proposed to the Parlia- ment which had been elected under the Constitution to suspend the guarantee for the liberty of the subject ; and, as the enemies of the Constitution attributed these offences to the Carbonari, a proclamation was issued, calling upon all members of the Society to aid, with all their might, in the maintenance of order and the repression of crime. " Your country, your honour," they were reminded, " demand from you not regret alone, but exertion and energy; and the Assembly invites you to employ them. Let robbers, and those who commit excesses TEE OAEBONABI. 245 in the public ways, be incessantly watched and arrested by such of you as belong to the public force, and let your calumniators know that you do not approve of crime, but eradicate it wherever it is found. Be careful, however, to preserve the strictest order among yourselves when you oppose disorder; the slightest inattention, the most trifling want of discipline, the least opposition to the public authorities, may destroy the merit of the good intentions you may have, and bring upon you blame instead of honour. Above all, let there be no distinction of persons when it is your business to unite for the repression of excesses. Fra- ternal love places all the Good Cousins on the same level." Austrian troops were at this time concentrated on the frontier, and the partisans of absolutism were using every means to discredit the Carbonari, and thus smooth the way to a counter-revolution. One of these was the circulation of the Bull which the Pope had fulminated against secret societies in 1814, the effect of which the Grrand Lodge of Salerno endeavoured to counteract by the issue of a notice, stating that the Grand Master, " being informed that some superstitious fanatics, in order to discourage the Good Cousins, and to prevent the increase of their numbers, are circulating old Bulls of excommunication and other follies, disgraceful to an enlightened age, declares that such things should be regarded with contempt, especially as these Bulls are wicked fabri- cations of a party hostile to the country. It is, nevertheless, necessary to keep an eye upon such fanatics, towards whom the vigilance recommended in our second article shall be directed." 246 THB CABBONABI. As the Bull was a hard fact, however, the Grand Lodge addressed a remonstrance to the Pope on the subject, in the hope of procuring the withdrawal of the document. This memorial was a very able and temperate production. " Every society," it set forth, " has its liturgy. That of the Carbonari breathes only the religion of Jesus Christ.. The cross, the sign of our religion, forms a principal symbol of its rites. Faith, Hope, and Charity, the distinctive signs of the Catholic Church, according to the Apostle St. Paul, form the language which distinguishes the Society, and by means of which it communicates. The conduct which is inculcated in the initiation of the Carbonari is precisely the practice of the morality of the Gospel. The greatest among the precepts of this divine morality, that of universal charity, not only binds them together, but obliges them to practise it, even towards those who do not belong to the Society. It is true that the Society has a political object; but this is not in the slightest degree contrary to the maxims of religion. It preserves that respect for sovereignty which the Apostle requires from Chris- tians — it loves the Sovereign, it preserves the State, and even the principle of hereditary succession ; but it supports Democracy, which, instead of attacking Monarchy, forms that happy addition to it which endears it more to the nation, and which alone can render the rights of the Sovereign and those of the citizen less fluctuating, and which therefore prevents political disorders by constitutional means, and con- solidates the true basis of national felicity, a felicity THE CABBONABI. 247 to which the Christian religion directly leads those nations whose glory it is to profess it. "Such, most blessed Father, is the state, the object, and the secret of the Society of the Carbonari. Far from that secret, now no longer such, be every sus- picion as to its dogmas or morals. If it separates itself from the public, if it holds its meetings apart, if it has its peculiar rites, it is because all this is neces- sary to preserve the spirit that distinguishes it. Man is, in a manner, subject to the senses. Truth, veiled in rites which are its symbols, insinuates itself more deeplyinto the mind; and a ceremony which inspires the newly initiated with a sacred awe, is warranted even by that once imposed upon the proselytes of the Church. The rite which is still preserved in the administration of baptism is respected because it is figurative, although it does not correspond with the actual condition of the infant Christian. But the ceremonies of the Society of the Carbonari are in nowise opposed to the pro- fession of the Catholic and Apostolic rehgion, which its members jealously maintain." After arguing that nothing adverse to the Society was to be inferred from the conduct of individual members, any more than the conduct of individual priests could be held to affect the character of the Church, the remonstrance proceeded as follows : — " The Society of the Carbonari, therefore, professing the dictates of the Charcb of Jesus Christ, the Eoman Catholic and Apostolic religion, whose visible head it acknowledges in your Holiness— practising a moral discipline entirely modelled on the precepts of the Gospel — no longer having a secret which leaves 248 THB OABBONABI. room for suspicion, now that it has revealed its great object, and the Sovereign has adopted it with sin- cerity — using a ceremonial whose symbols are only figurative of that which has been executed with so much applause ; your Holiness neither has, nor can have, reason to suspect this Society, either as to religion or morals, on which account it is time now that your mind is disabused, freed from those sus- picions which provoked against the Society the thunders of the Vatican, that you cease to class it among equivocal secret societies, rendered public and general as it is in this kingdom under the auspices of our most religious Sovereign, and of his most pious Vicar-General, the hereditary Prince Trancis; and, consequently, that you declare it free-from the spiritual penalties which you pronounced against it by your Bull of the year 1815, when neither its disposition, profession, nor object were known." The appeal to the Pope was unsuccessful, and the Grand Lodge consulted the Carbonaro priests as to the means of combating the Bull, which were found in the argument that the Papal edicts had always been held to require the exequator of the King to render them valid in the kingdom of Naples, and that the royal authorisation had not been given in that instance, Murat having then been on the throne, and more desirous of the support of the Carbonari than of the goodwill of the Pope. Troyse, the Minister of Worship, seeing a possible danger in this view of the case, issued a circular to the superior clergy through- out the kingdom, arguing that the Carbonari were no longer a secret society, and that the Bull no longer applied to them. THE GABBONABI. 249 " It is time," said the Minister, " to abjure the errors into which we had fallen with regard to these societies, whose object is no longer a mystery, because they are so widely extended that no class of citizens can now be ignorant of the purposes of their meetings. They laboured to obtain that Constitution which has been solemnly acknowledged and sworn to by his Majesty — that Constitution which, by its Twelfth Article, acknowledges no other religion than that of the Eoman Catholic and Apostolic Church, professed by our fathers, and which shall always be ours. Is it not, then, wilfully diminishing the respect due to the Holy See, when we attribute to it power in. matters merely political and completely foreign to its province? All mystery being now laid aside, and the object of the Carbonari openly avowed, the Society is no longer subject to the Bulls in any way, but is amenable only to the laws of the realm." The success with which the efforts of the Carbonari had been crowned in the kingdom of Kaples had, in the meantime, caused a thrill of hope to pervade the hearts of the patriots throughout the Peninsula, and produced a corresponding uneasiness at Vienna. Several assassinations in the Eomagna were attributed to the Carbonari, who, with the kindred societies of the G-uelphs and the Adelphi, were supposed to be plotting unHmited mischief in Lombardy and Pied- mont. The Emperor of Austria accordingly, in the month of August, promulgated a decree denouncing Carbonarism as a conspiracy for the subversion and destruction of all governments, and menacing all the initiated with the pains and penalties of treason — namely, death and 'confiscation. All persons aware of 250 THE CARBONARI. the existence of Carbonaro lodges, and neglecting to denounce them to the police, were declared accom- plices in the treason, and as such liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for life. The Emperor, or Prince Metternich, was not content with this warning to the patriots of Lombardy and Venetia. He and his royal brother of Prussia, who was equally uneasy on account of the agitation pro- moted by the Tugendbund, joined in an earnest appeal to the Czar to meet them, that they might deliberate upon the impending danger to autocratic rule. The three Sovereigns of the Holy Alliance met at Troppau in the autumn, and pledged themselves to support each other in any emergency that might be created by the secretly-working enemies whom they so much dreaded. The Neapolitan revolution was the chief subject of their deliberations, which resulted in a resolution to enforce the secret compact between Ferdinand and the Emperor, on the plea that " the Sovereigns of the Holy Alliance exercised an incon- testable right in taking common measures of security against States which the overthrow of authority by revolt placed in a hostile attitude towards every legitimate Government." This pretension was too outrageous even for Lord Castlereagh, who expressed his dissent from it in a circular despatch addressed by him to the representatives of Britain at aU the European Courts ; but with this protest the British Government was content, and the Holy Alliance was left at liberty to deal with Italy as the interests of autocracy might seem to require. The system of espionage maintained by the Austrian Government in the Italian provinces of the Empire TEE OABBONABI. 251 caused the existence of Carbonaro lodges in Lombardy to be suspected very soon after they were opened. !No traces of their existence can be found earlier than the spring of 1820, when Count Laderchi and Pietro Maroncelli, a poet of rising fame, and a most amiable man, were sent into Lombardy by the Grrand Lodge of Ancona, for the purpose of disseminating the system in that province. Once introduced, it spread rapidly ; all the active intellect of Lombardy was soon em- braced in it. The talented Silvio Pellico, whose pathetic narrative of his persecutions and sufferings afterwards won for him the sympathy of the world — Count Confalionieri, a member of a family illustrious in the annals of Milan, a man of immense intellect and dauntless courage, and a zealous promoter of popular education — Count Porro, remarkable for his zeal and liberality in promoting the cultivation of literature and the arts — Gioja, one of the most pro- found thinkers amongst the literary men of Italy, and the author of several works on political economy — Pecchio, a man of similar pursuits and mental calibre — Scalvini, the translator of Goethe — were amongst the earliest of the initiated. Simultaneously with the introduction of Carbonarism into the Austrian provinces, the secret society of the Italian Federati was formed, and, as well as that of the Adelphi, was connected with the Carbonari on a plan similar to that which bound the Guelphs with the original Society in the Papal States. The objects of all these societies were the same, and measures were taken during the autumn of 1820 to concert a com- bined plan of action throughout [Northern and Central Italy. "With a view to this end, Confalionieri went 252 THB OAUBONABI. to Florence, and Pecchio to Turin ; and an arrange- ment was made for the union of Piedmont with Lombardjr and Venetia, and a federal union with the States of the centre and the south, when the revo- lution should be accomplished and the Austrians expelled. In the meantime, the mental vision of the leaders was turned anxiously towards the south, where events were not progressing so favourably for the cause of liberty as had been hoped. Though the Spanish Constitution had been accepted by the Duke of Calabria, in the name of the King, unconditionally, the Ministers deemed it advisable to submit it to the Parliament ; and certain modifications relative to religion being made, against which Cardinal Euffo and twenty-two dignitaries of the Church vehemently protested, the royal veto was pronounced. ^Naples thereupon again became a scene of excitement and disorder. On the 15th of January, a mob of several hundreds of men invaded the hall of the Assembly, and took possession of the tribunes, from which their leaders demanded the arrest of Cardinal Euffo, the adoption of the modifications in defiance of the veto, and the reduction of the Eoyal Guard. By the Absolutists, these rioters were said to be Eepublican Carbonari ; the Liberals, on the other hand, denounced them as the hirelings of a foreign Power, paid to foment disorders and discredit the constitutional cause. Several deputies of the latter party reproached them in that sense, and their leaders thereupon became silent, and withdrew from the tribunes. The hall was then cleared, but several affrays took place during the night between parties of the National Guard and THS CABBONABI. 253 the Carbonaro Guard, in wliicTi the latter were gene- rally worsted. These dissensions and disturbances made the mode-' rate Carbonari desirous of effacing from the Society its secret character, and impressing it with that of an association for the maintenance of the Constitution, which they regarded as their own work. With this view, the statutes of the Society were revised, the patents of many of the lodges were withdrawn, and the more violent members of the Eepublican section everywhere expelled. The expelled ultras formed themselves into a new Society under the name of Pythagoreans ; but the intendant of Teramo ordered their lodges to be closed, and in Naples they were placed under the surveillance of the police. The Carbonaro Gluard was, at the same time, reorganised, and subjected to a weeding process, in order to remove from it men who held the political creed of the ultras. It may be doubted whether the Society was not weakened, rather than strengthened, by this policy ; but the leaders, now they were invested legally with supreme power, were anxious for the maintenance of order and the avoidance of any pretext for foreign intervention, and they were unaware that they were being betrayed to their ruin by a perfidious King. Ferdinand had attended the Congress of Laybach, to which place the meeting of the Sovereigns of the Holy Alliance had been adjourned, ostensibly to obtain the sanction of that crowned triumvirate to the revolution, a mission in which the Prince of Cariati had already failed. He did not succeed, and probably did not desire success. A counter-revolution was decreed by the northern despots, and an Austrian 254 THE CABBONABI. army crossed the Po, traversed the dominions of the Pope, and prepared to invade the Neapolitan territory 'at Eieti. In the meantime, Ferdinand and the Duke of Calabria, in whom the supreme command of the army was vested by the Constitution, were taking measures to render the national resistance unavailing- General Pepe was despatched towards the frontier with only ten thousand men, most of whom were militia, to oppose the advance of sixty thousand Anstrians. Eeinforcements were promised him, and also supplies of clothing and boots, which were much needed ; but they were not sent, and, whilst he was hastening towards the frontier to resist the invasion, secret emissaries of the King were spreading false reports that a Russian army was on the Po, prepared to support the Austrians, and the British and French fleets on their way to the Bay of Naples to co-operate with the invaders. Pepe reached Aquila on the 20th of February, still relying upon the promises of the Duke of Calabria, who, at the end of the month, assured him that Carascosas was on his way to support him. On the 3rd of March, when the Austrians were preparing to cross the frontier, and Carascosas was still far distant, the militia began to disband, the intendant of Aquila being engaged in the dissemination of false reports in the interest of the enemy, with whom he was in com- munication, while two adjutants were indicated to Pepe by Colonel Pisa, an officer of his staff, as employed by a person of high rank to effect the dispersion of the army. On the 7th the Austrians crossed the frontier, and Pepe attacked them at Civita Ducale, but, after a combat of seven hours, THE OABBONASI. 256 was forced to retire to Aquila. The Austrians followed, and, the Neapolitan militia continuing to desert until their defection and his losses at Civita Ducale left him scarcely a thousand men, Pepe re- treated to Isernia. He then found that Carascosas, instead of advancing to his support, had fallen hack as the Austrians advanced, and, on reaching the Vol- turno, had traitorously disbanded his troops. Pepe immediately hastened to Naples, and made energetic efforts to collect troops ; but he was para- lysed by the discovery that secret orders had been given to the regimental officers not to advance beyond Capua, and on receiving a hint from the Spanish Ambassador, the Cavaliere d'Onis, to provide for his personal safety, he embarked for Barcelona two days after his arrival in the capital. The Duke of Calabria wrote to him afterwards, offering him a diplomatic appointment ; but Pepe declined to accept it, inform- ing the Neapolitan Minister at Madrid that he recog- nised neither the Austrian military government at Naples nor the absolute rule of Ferdinand IV., to which it was preliminary. What would have been his fate if he had returned to Naples, or had remained there, may be inferred from that of Morelli and Sil- vati, who were arrested on the entry of the Austrians, tried by a military commission, and condemned to death. They met their fate with calmness and courage, never once swerving from the principles for the assertion of which they suffered. Morelli wished to speak at the place of execution, and began a bold profession of his political faith ; but the Austrian drums drowned his voice, so fearful were Bourbons and Hapsburgs alike that the Carbonaro creed should 256 THB OABBONABI. be recited in the hearing of their subjects, even by a bound prisoner whom only a few moments divided from death. While these events were in progress in the south of Italy the exciting drama of revolution was being reproduced in Piedmont. The Carbonaro system had there spread rapidly, especially since the revolution in Naples, and at the close of 1820 the Piedmontese lodges embraced all the intellect and patriotism of the State. As in every other part of Italy, the younger members of the nobility and the junior officers of the army formed the van of the move- ment, and communicated to it the irrepressible ardour of their age. The Prince of Carignano lent the con- spirators the influence of his name and his exalted position, and, as the presumptive heir to the throne, was naturally regarded as the leader of the move- ment. His adhesion proved, however, a serious mis- fortune, duplicity being an ineradicable vice of his character, which has caused his name to be handed down to posterity with the odium of the blackest treachery of which history affords an example. Passing from the lodges of the Carbonari to the saloons of the Eussian Ambassador, he betrayed the secrets of the Society, knowing that they would be immediately communicated to the Austrian Minister, and by him to Metternich ; and he returned to the councils of the conspirators to assist, by hypocrisy and deceit, in the weaving of a web of iniquity by which he would be advanced a step nearer to the throne, while the cause of freedom would be in- definitely thrown back. Arrangements were made for a rising on the 12th THB CABBONABI. 257 of January, but the movement was postponed by the Prince of Carignano. About the end of February the King was informed by the Austrian Ambassador that the Carbonari were plotting the expulsion of the Austrians; and the resolution of the Congress of Troppau must have impressed Victor Emmanuel very deeply with the conviction that he held his throne by sufferance of Austria, the condition being that he must neither grant the Constitution which his sub- jects were clamouring for nor evince the faintest sympathy with the patriotic aspirations of the Italians for the independence of their country. Several of the nobility were arrested, therefore, on suspicion of being concerned in the conspiracy de- nounced by the Austrian Minister, and imprisoned in the fortress of Fenestrelles. The Prince of Carignano, whose treachery had been the cause of these misfortunes, at length, on the 8th of March, gave the order for an immediate rising; but he countermanded this order on the following day, and the revolution would not have been effected if Count Parma had not resolved to disregard the re- vocation of the order, and act on the instructions of the 8th.* On the 10th of March a Constitution similar to that of Spain and ITaples was openly pro- claimed at Alessandria by Count Parma and Colonel Eegis, who, supported by the greater part of the garrison and the students of the university, seized the citadel and hoisted the Italian tricolour — green, red, and blue. On the following day, when the news of this event reached Turin, great excitement pre- * Life and Writings of Joseph Mazziai. VOL. I. S 258 TEE CABBONAM. vailed, and the Carbonari of the garrison and the university paraded the principal streets, shouting for the Constitution. Early on the morning of the 12th Captain Lesio set out from Turin for Pignerol, where a light cavalry regiment pronounced for the Constitu- tion, and was led by him to the capital. The attitude of the army rendering it evident that it could not be relied upon as a means of resisting the popular move- ment, the Governor of Turin, the Cavaliere Varas, took his departure with the few troops who remained loyal ; and the Carbonari immediately took possession of the citadel, hoisted the national tricolour, and pro- claimed the Constitution amidst general and fervent enthusiasm. Victor Emmanuel, who was residing at this time at the royal chS,teau of Monte Calveri, in the neigh- bourhood, of the capital, hastened to Turin on learning what had occurred at Alessandria, and convened the Council of Ministers the moment he arrived. Finding a report current that the Austrian Grovemment had demanded the disbandment of the Piedmontese army, and the occupation of the fortresses by Austrian troops, he immediately issued a proclamation, denying that such demands had been made ; and then proposed to put himself at the head of the Eoyal Guards, and march to Alessandria to suppress the revolt. He was evidently very imperfectly acquainted with the situation, and seems to have faintly realised it even when farther enlightened. The idea of going to Alessandria was abandoned on its being found that the troops had pronounced for the Constitution, and could not be depended upon for the defence of absolutism. No other presented itself, however, and THE OABBONABI. 259 the roar of the multitude without, shouting for the Constitution, warned him that something must be done, or it would soon be too late to do anything. The Guards ordered to disperse the crowd before the palace joined in the cry for the Constitution, but otherwise remained inactive. It was then proposed in the Council that a Constitution similar to that of France should be proclaimed; but before this could be done, the booming of three guns from the ramparts of the citadel announced that the fortress was in the possession of the conspirators. Startled and dismayed, the King desired the Prince of Carignano to hasten to the citadel, and ascertain the demands of the Carbonaro leaders. The Prince departed, and re- turned with the intelligence that he had found a great crowd on the glacis, shouting for the Con- stitution, and the troops on the ramparts echoing the cry, and pointing with exultation to the tri- coloured flag. He had been received with military honours, and treated with respect and courtesy by the Carbonaro leaders, who demanded the procla- mation of the Spanish Constitution and war with Austria for the independence of Italy. The Council sat all night, and Victor Emmanuel, finding that he must yield or retire, at length resolved to follow the example of his royal brother of Naples, and abdicate the throne. Early on the following morning, therefore, he left Turin with his family, and retired to Nice; and the Prince of Carignano, assuming the functions of Eegent of the Kingdom, issued a proclamation announcing the change which had been resolved upon, notified the event to the Ministers of foreign Powers, and entered upon the s 2 260 TBB OABBONABI. exercise of the full powers of sovereignty. The Spanish Constitution was proclaimed amidst the acclamations of the people, who saw the future through a rosy medium that effaced the resolution of the Holy Alliance and the impending Austrian intervention in Naples. The crown devolved by the resignation of Victor Emmanuel upon' his brother, Charles Felix, who was at that time residing at Modena, and known to be a decided absolutist. The double treachery of the Prince of Carignano was not long in displaying itself. On the evening of the 23rd, only eleven days after he had accepted the Regency of the kingdom, he left Turin at the head of the Eoyal Guards, the light 'artillery, and two regiments of cavalry; and Count Latour, who commanded a considerable force at Novara, and at first seemed disposed to recognise the revolution, invited Count Bubna, the General commanding the Austrian army on the frontier, to enter Piedmont, and eifect a counter-revolution. These defections not only prevented the Carbonari of Piedmont from aiding their Good Cousins of Lom- bardy, but crushed their hopes of establishing con- stitutional government in the former State. On the approach of the loyalists and the Austrians to Turin, they retired to Alessandria, and thence to Genoa, which had pronounced for the Constitution on the day of Carignano's flight. Charles Felix entered the capital an absolute sovereign, but owinc his throne to foreign bayonets ; and the revolutionary leaders embarked at Genoa for Barcelona. This deplorable collapse of the Piedmontese revo- lution left no hope for the patriots of Lombardy, THE GABBONABI. 261 whose movements depended on its success. Count Confalionieri was seriously ill at the time, and on the eve of its outbreak he wrote to Count St. Marsan, advising its postponement on the ground that Lom- bardy was not prepared. He received at the same time a warning from Count Bubna that the move- ment was hopeless, and would ruin all who engaged in it;* but he disregarded the hint, and his letter to St. Marsan was either unheeded or was received too late. A. plan of co-operation with the expected Piedmontese army had been arranged at the end of February by Pecchio and Scalvini, in conjunction with Count Giovanni Arrivabene, Borsieri, Clerk to the Court of Appeal at Milan, and two other Car- bonari, Bossi and Castiglia. Count Arrivabene was not a Carbonaro, holding that the independence of Italy could be accomplished without secret societies ; but he sympathised warmly with the movement, and on learning that funds were required for its success in Piedmont, furnished the conspirators with a con-- siderable sum. Count Confalionieri was to be the head of the Provisional Government that was to be proclaimed in Milan on the entry of the Piedmontese, which movement would have cut off the Austrian army on the Po ; but his illness removed a check on the impulsive enthusiasm of the subordinate con- spirators, who hurried on the movement in Piedmont before they were prepared to co-operate with it. Castiglia and the Marquis of Pallavicini went to Turin for that purpose, and another emissary was sent to the Carbonaro lodge at Brescia, where it was * Arrivabene, An Epoch, of my Life. 262 THE CARBONARI. determined to muster all the Carbonari of the district as soon as the Piedmontese crossed the frontier, and, simultaneously with an outbreak in Milan, to disarm the garrison, seize the treasury, and surprise the for- tresses of Peschiera and Eocca d'Aufo. The concen- tration of Austrian troops on the frontier and the collapse of the Piedmontese revolution defeated this project ; and, when absolutism had been re-established at Naples and Turin, the Austrian police proceeded to gather the leaders of the secret societies of Lom- bardy into the Imperial prisons. Pellico, suspected on account of the liberalism of his articles in the Conciliatore — Laderchi and Maron- celli, accused of propagating Carbonarism — Gioja, suspected of a secret correspondence with the abettors of revolution — were already in prison ; and a commis- sion was appointed to examine them, and others who might be caught in the meshes of the police. Under the rigorous and daily-repeated interrogatories of the chief commissioner, the execrable Salvotti, Laderchi admitted that he had told Professor Eessi that he was a Carbonaro, and Pellico made a similar admission concerning Count Arrivabene. Eessi and Arrivabene were immediately arrested, and hurried ofi" to Venice, where, with the other prisoners, they were lodged in the prison of St. Michele, situate on the little island of that name. Count Arrivabene felt confident that his detention would be brief, as he was not a Carbo- naro, and there was no evidence to connect him with the conspiracy ; but he had forgotten that Pellico had suggested the Carbonaro system to him in the autumn of 1 820. " Pellico," said Salvotti, when he found that he could extract from him nothing criminatory, " con- TEE OABBONABL 263 fided to you that he was a Carbonaro : it was your duty to denounce him to the Grovernment ; you have not done so — therefore, you are guilty of the crime of non-revelation." The next arrest was that of Scalvini, accused of having, two years previously, written a letter in which he had spoken irreverently of the Em:peror. Then came the turn of Count Confalionieri, who had in- dulged the delusive dream that he was unsuspected, and that, even if suspected, the Government would; not arrest a man of his high rank and illustrious lineage. He was arrested in December, together with Castiglia and the Marquis of Pallavicini, just after Count Arrivabene obtained his freedom. The police had now got a clue to the conspiracy, and minor oflenders were of less consequence. Gioja was also liberated, after suffering nine months' imprisonment ; and Scalvini, having suffered a similar period of de- tention, was discharged from custody at the end of February. The liberated became the " Hons" of the saloons of Venice, the noblest of the kingdom, including the Princess of Gonzaga and the Countess Albrizzi, whom. Byron called the De StaSl of Italy, vying with each other in doing them honour. Bit they were not yet safe. Count Arrivabene, on going to Milan, called upon the Countess Confalionieri, who advised him to- leave the country as quickly as he could. He neglected the warning, and, on learning that Scalvini was free, went to Brescia to welcome him back to liberty. The poet advised that they should leave Italy together ; but the Count was hard to convince that he was in any danger, and even the circumstance of his not 264 TEB OABBONAUI. being allowed to proceed from Brescia to Verona, the police requiring him to return to Mantua, in tho vicinity of which he resided, failed to impress him with a due sense of the consequences of disregarding the warning of the Countess Confalionieri, who had probably good reason for her advice, the family being on friendly terms with the Austrian General, Count Bubna. The arrest of Borsieri and Mompiani on the 8th of April roused him at length to consciousness of danger, and he hurried to Brescia, whence he, Scalvini, and Baron Ugoni fled to Switzerland. Count Porro ex- patriated himself at the same time, and, with the other refugees, was ordered to surrender within sixty days, under the penalty of the sequestration of their pro- perty in default ; and, on their failing to return, their estates were placed under sequestration, and them- selves finally condemned to death as contumacious offenders. The trials of the Carbonari were protracted until the beginning of 1822, when Confalionieri, Pellico, Maroncelli, and some others, were condemned to death ; and Eessi, and many more, to imprisonment for life. Eessi was released shortly afterwards by death, however; and the sentences on the others were commuted by the Emperor, at the intercession of the Empress and the Viceroy, supported by petitions from the nobles of Lombardy and Venetia, and the Archbishop of Milan and his clergy. Confalionieri was ordered to be exposed in the pillory, and then to be imprisoned for life in the fortress of Spielberg ; and the others were to suffer an incarceration of fifteen years in that dreaded prison. TBE OABBONABI. 265 Though Confalionieri had for some time been so ill and weak that he could scarcely stand, he was dragged, loaded with chains, to undergo the degrada- tion of the pillory J and, shortly afterwards, though declared by physicians to be in a dying state, was compelled to set out for Spielberg with the rest. He fell from one fainting fit into another, however, and had to be left by the way. On his recovery he was removed to Vienna, where Count Sedlewitsky, Director- General of the Police, and Prince Metternich visited him in turn, each using every argument that sug- gested itself in the endeavour to obtain disclosures from him. The prisoner was firm, however, in his refusal, and was sent on to Spielberg, still suffering from fainting fits, to wear out his life under the sys- tematic cruelty by which the Austrian Governuient strove to unravel the secrets of the Carbonari and strike terror into every Italian heart. The Emperor must be regarded at this time as the head gaoler of his dominions. He had a plan of the fortress, and seemed to be constantly studying the means of isolating the captives more completely, and increasing the rigour and the irksomeness of their confinement. No one unconnected with the prison was allowed to see them ; the means of reading and writing were strictly prohibited. "When they peti- tioned for permission to labour in the open air with the felons, they were ordered to make lint in their cells ; and when they complained of this aggravation of their punishment, he said, with a sneer, " Are they not philanthropists ?" The gaolers and guards were frequently changed, lest humanity should assert itself and the prisoners obtain some alleviation of their 266 THE OABBONABI. punisliment, or even be enabled to escape. Priests were sent to work upon their minds and hearts, and endeavour to extract from them political secrets under the plea of performing the offices of religion. The commandant of the fortress was directed to keep the strictest watch over the prisoners, the gaolers, and the guards, and make a daily report to the Emperor ; and lest he should fail in the performance of his duty, the assistant hangman of Vienna was sent to Spielberg to be a spy upon the commandant. The director- general of the police visited the fortress monthly, and reported upon its condition and management; the governor-general was ordered to report upon the con- duct of the director-general of the police and the com- mandant of the fortress ; and an A-ulic Councillor, or a Minister of State, visited Spielberg every year, with instructions to take everybody by surprise, and ascer- tain whether the Emperor's orders were strictly executed. Several of the political prisoners of 1 820-21, perished prematurely in their dungeons; and when, in 1830, an amnesty was granted by the Emperor, Confalionieri was prematurely aged and infirm, Pellico had lost a limb, Maroncelli was in the last stage of disease, and there was not one of the survivors whose sufferings and long confinement had not shortened his remaining years of life. Confalionieri was liberated, even then, only on the condition of not returning to Italy. He proceeded to the United States, where he remained until 1841, when he received permission to reside in the land of his birth ; but he survived the indulgence only five years. CHAPTER VI. THE ASSOCIATED PATRIOTS. T7EANCE, on the fall of ISTapoleon, experienced the -*- humiliation which she had inflicted on Grermany during his supremacy. The dynasty which she had subverted by so tremendous an effort was restored by the might of foreign armies ; her long-conquering legions were disbanded, and the tricoloured flag under which it had fought at Marengo and Auster- litz and Jena replaced by the white ensign of the ancient monarchy ; her fortresses were held by foreign troops, whose iron grasp was felt as that of a gaoler ; an indemnity of sixty millions sterling had to be raised by the imposition of fresh taxes upon a people whose commerce and industry were already prostrated by the exactions, in blood and money, of their late despot. Even this terrible amount of sacrifice and humiliation did not procure for the French people either liberty or internal peace. The Charter limited the possession of political power to the large landowners and the upper grades of the middle class ; the press was bound in the fetters of the censorship ; the freedom of speech was stifled by the enactment of the severest penalties for the faintest utterance that could be displeasing to the exultant partisans of the restored dynasty. The 268 THE ASSOCIATED FATMOTS. nobles who had fled from France on the fall of the monarchy, and had since been engaged in a constant conspiracy against their country, flocked back, breath- ing fire and slaughter against Eepublicans and Buona- partists alike. Their emissaries stirred up the rabble to the commission of crimes and outrages against the persons and property of the proscribed parties which vied in atrocity with those of the San Fedists of Naples. Eoyalist mobs murdered Marshal Brune at Avignon, with circumstances of horrible barbarity ; threatened the life of Massena at Marseilles, and cut to pieces his friend Angles-Capefique, a near relative of the historian of that name ; burst into the house of Greneral Eamel at Toulouse, and murdered him in his bed ; shot General Legarde at Nismes, while he was endeavouring to protect the opening of a Protestant chapel; and at Marseilles, Nismes, and Toulouse pil- laged and burned the houses of several persons who were obnoxious to them. These atrocities were never punished, or even inquired into ; a Eoyalist reign of terror prevailed all through the south, and the pre- fects were either unable or unwilling to do their duty. The Eepresentative Chamber, elected as it was by the more wealthy classes, whose interests prompt them to support order at whatever sacrifice of free- dom, consisted of a large majority of partisans of the old regime, and a minoritj^ which was not an Oppo- sition, since it was more in accordance with the Ministry than the majority. The Buonapartists and the Eepublicans, who now jointly assumed the name of the Patriots, were represented only by Flaugergues and Argenson. There sat in the Chamber of Deputies, therefore, only those who supported a Constitution THE A8S0GIATBB PATBI0T8. 269 whicli excluded the people from political power, and those who would gladly have torn up the Charter, and dispensed with even the shadow of representative government which it established. The first acts of the Chambers in the session of 1815-16 were, the establishment of the censorship, the imposition of heavy taxes for the purpose of paying the indemnity, and a measure for the repres- sion of sedition which, when its provisions became known, whitened with dismay every cheek that did not redden with indignation. By this Draconian statute it was enacted that all persons accused of offences against the person or authority of the King, or any member of the royal family, or the security of the State, might be arrested and detained in prison until the end of the next session of the Chambers, without being brought to trial ; and all persons con- victed of uttering seditious cries, uttering or writing any threat against the King, or any member of the royal family, stimulating to resistance of the royal authority, provoking directly or indirectly the over- throw of the Government, or a change in the order of succession to the throne, or exhibiting any other flag than the white flag, whether or not any consequences should follow such offences, and whether or not they should be connected with any actual conspiracy, should be transported to Cayenne. Terms of im- prisonment, varying from three months to five years, together with pecuniary fines, were assigned for a multitude of minor offences, which rendered it difiicult in the extreme for any person who might be obnoxious to the Grovernment to avoid falling into the meshes of the police. 270 TSE ASSOCIATED PATRIOTS. Lest even this severe measure should leave any loophole of escape for those who might infringe its provisions, provostal courts, which were a revival in some measure of the old tribunals of the provost- marshals, were instituted for their more certain condemnation. Every department had its provostal court, the judges of which were nominated by the chancellor, and were untrammelled by the intervention of a jury ; and every such court had attached to it a provost, who was appointed by the Minister for "War, and was almost invariably an old military officer of the era preceding the Revolution. The function of this officer was to arrest and bring before the court all persons whom he believed to be disaffected to the Government, or engaged in any plot against the Crown or the State ; and he was assisted in its exercise by self-constituted committees in all the towns, and the members of which were in constant communication with the Pavilion Marsan, as the coterie of the Count of Artois was called. These royalist committees and the provostal courts soon came into active operation, and between them they diffused over France a feeling of dread which recalled the most terrible period of the Revolution . It was under these circumstances that the secret society of the Associated Patriots was formed, with the object of effecting a revolution before the army could be reorganised, and establishing a Republic. Its direction was in Paris, but there were branch societies in several provincial towns. The organisation of the Society seems never to have become thoroughly known to the police, but the suspicions of the Govern- ment pointed to Lafayette as the secret director of the TBIl ASSOOIATED PATRIOTS. 271 movement, though his connexion with it could not be discovered. The houses of the veteran revolutionist and his friends, Manuel and Argenson, were the nightly resort of disaflPected persons, especially of men who had sat in the National Convention or held com- missions in the armies of the Eepublic -and the Empire. Many of the latter class, weeded out of the army since the restoration of the Bourbons, and displaced civil functionaries, superseded under the Eichelieu administration by partisans of the new order of things, belonged to the Associated Patriots ; and with these were joined many non-commissioned officers and privates of the disbanded array and a considerable number of workmen. The composition of the Society was similar, it will be seen, to that of the Carbonaro organisation in France a few years later. The operations of the Society commenced before the close of 1815, and were rapidly extended to places so far apart as Amiens and Grenoble. The plan of the conspirators is said to have embraced the blowing up of the Tuileries in the middle of the night, by means of twenty barrels of gunpowder deposited in a sub- terranean gallery worked from an old sewer ; but, as this statement rests upon the unsupported testimony of the spies of the Eue de Jerusalem, it must be received with caution. The estabhshment of a Provisional Government, and the convening of a National Assembly, were to follow. Paris was slenderly garrisoned at the time, and chiefly by British regiments ; and there can be little doubt that, if the conspirators had carried out their design, and triumphed in the capital, the provincial towns would have immediately pronounced for the new revolution. 272 TEE ASSOCIATED PATRIOTS. The nightly assemblages at the houses of Lafayette, Manuel, and Argenson did not escape the observation of the Government and the police, and the chief of the establishment in the Eue de Jerusalem did not hesitate to denounce those gentlemen to Decazes, who had succeeded Fouche as Minister of Police, as the chiefs of some hidden conspiracy. The restored monarchy was, however, too young as yet for an experiment upon the security of its foundations to be tried by the arrest of so important a personage as Lafayette; and it would not have been possible to have prosecuted Manuel and Argenson without implicating that veteran revolutionist. The Ministers hesitated to proceed against either of the deputies, therefore, though the arrest of Manuel was specially urged upon them. No bolder measure could be resolved upon by the Eichelieu Ministry than the arrest of some obscure individuals, whose execution would, it was hoped, strike terror into the hearts of the actual or probable conspirators of every degree. The means that were adopted for drawing the desired victims into the meshes of the police were so horrible that tlie story would be scarcely credible if it were not confirmed by the testimony of the famous detective, Vidocq, and similar atrocities had not been recorded in the secret registers of Downing Street. The infamy which attaches to the names of Eeynolds and Armstrong, the betrayers of the United Irishmen, is of a mild type compared with that of the Home Office emissaries who concocted, and then betrayed, the Barley Mow plot, for which Colonel Despard sufiered — who reported to Lord Sidmouth, day by day, the THE AS800IATBD PATBIOTS. 273 treasonable project tliat they were assisting to concert in that Cato Street garret which Thistlewood stained with the blood of the police-officer Smithers — and who suggested the darkest features of the Chartist conspiracy of 1848.* At the time when the Associated Patriots were conspiring the overthrow of the monarchy, there were in Paris a great number of singing clubs, called guinguettes. " This species of political rat-trap," says Vidocq, " was at first formed under the auspices of the police, who peopled it with their agents. There it was that, whilst drinking with mechanics and persons composing the inferior class, these spies of the Government worked upon them in order to involve them in false conspiracies. I have witnessed several of these mock patriotic meetings, at which those who pretended to the greatest share of en- thusiasm were the tools of the police, and were easily * Powell, alias the Welst Novice, who insimiated himself into the confidence of Cuffey and his co-conspirators under the assumed name of Jackson and the false character of a workman, gained his living by walking for wagers and sponging in so-called sporting pubhc-houses. It was he who suggested the strewing of caltrops in the streets to lame the cavalry horses. During the trial of the conspirators his lodging was watched by the police, and he was escorted by them to and from the Old Bailey, lest his career should be ended befcre he had secured the condemiiation of the accused. He had, however, a narrow escape of being shot in the witness-box— a fact now revealed for the first time. The intending assassin was the shoemaker-poet, James Blackahy, one of whose effusions appeared in Reynolds's Mis- cellamy, and another (suggested by the death of Lord Abinger) was pubhshed at Croydon. He died some years ago at Hertford. Powell had his passage to Australia paid by the Government, but colonial life was not to his taste, and he came back a discontented man, com- plaining that he had " saved society," and that society had not adequately testified its gratitude. VOL. I. T 274 TBE ASSOCIATED PATRIOTS. distinguished by the gross and vulgar hatred expressed in their songs against the royal family. These in- temperate rhapsodies were the productions of the same authors as the hymns of St. Louis and St. Charles, and were paid for out of the secret funds of the Kue de Jerusalem. . . . Three heads were by these machinations brought to the scaffold — those of Carbonneau, Pleignier, and Tolleron ; after which the guinguettes were closed. There was no further occasion for them ; sufficient blood had been shed."* The men named by Vidocq were respectively a writing-master, a leather-cutter, and an engraver, who were arrested on the charge of preparing and circulat- ing a treasonable circular. Pleignier was represented by the police as the ostensible chief of the conspiracy, and he admitted his responsibility for the circulars, which, with cards showing the affiliation of the accused to the Associated Patriots, was the chief evidence against them, in addition to that of the police. Seventeen other persons were arrested, including some women, and were sentenced to various terms of im- prisonment. Pleignier, Carbonneau, and Tolleron were convicted of treason, and condemned to death; and the sentence was executed with every detail that was calculated to excite in the public mind a horror of their doom. The unfortunate men were conducted to the place of execution with their faces concealed by black veils, after the manner in which parricides were formerly led to the scaffold ; and before they were strapped to the plank, and their necks placed beneath the knife of the guillotine, each of the condemned men AutoMograpliy of Vidocq. THE ASSOOIATBD PATRIOTS. 275 was made to place his rigM hand upon a block, where, in the sight of the horrified crowd, it was severed from the arm by the axe of the executioner. The attempt to impress upon the spectators the idea that the King stood towards the people in the relation of a father to his children was simply puerile ; but the revival of the barbarous practice of mutilation before the infliction of the capital sentence was a superadded horror that could excite no other feeling than indignation and disgust. There was living in Paris at this time an old man named Didier, who had been educated with a view to the priesthood, but had adopted the profession of the advocate as more congenial. Eestless and fickle, he had several times changed his political creed, and been by turns a Eepublican, a Eoyalist, and an Imperialist. Under the Empire he had lived quietly on the fortune he had amassed by the practice of his profession, and he seems to have taken no part in the agitations which attended the fall of Napoleon, his return from Elba, and his final abdication. About the time when the conspiracy of the Associated Patriots collapsed. Tie was observed to mix much with the disafiected of all deno- minations, but especially with the partisans of the Duke of Orleans.* In a short time afterwards he left Paris, ostensibly on his private business, and proceeded to Lyons, where he held communication with several persons known to be disaffected to the Grovernment. Thence he returned to Paris, but in a few days again departed, leaving no trace of his route. His destination this time was Grenoble, in the vicinity of which town he was born, and where he was ♦ Lamartine's History of tlie Eestoration. T 2 276 THE A8800IATEB PATRIOTS. well known. Making the house of a friend, an old officer of the Imperial array, his head-quarters, he assembled a number of discharged officers, non-com- missioned officers, and privates, and acquainted them with a project for the expulsion of the foreign garri- sons and the declaration of the national independence. There was no mention of Napoleon II., of the Duke of Orleans, or of a Eepublic ; and the vagueness of the manifesto produced dissatisfaction. For the moment it fell dead ; but Didier passed from village to village, and from farmhouse to farmhouse, between and around Grenoble and Chambery, addressing nocturnal assemblies and enrolling partisans, some in the name of Napoleon II., others in that of a Eepublic, and, in fewer instances, in that of the Duke of Orleans. The aim which he proposed to himself is not clear, his vague and contradictory utterances leaving nothing defined beyond an endeavour to overthrow the restored dynasty of Bourbon. Lamartine inclines to the belief that he was working in the interests of the Duke of Orleans ; but his last words were an emphatic warning to the King against that prince, and the men whom he associated with him in his abortive enterprise were all Buonapartists. On the other hand, no connexion could be traced between Didier and the Eepublicans. The Associated Patriots of Grenoble were aware of his proceedings in the villages of Dauphiny and Savoy, but they distrusted him, and declined to participate in them. Like him, they aimed at the subversion of the Bourbons, but they were as averse to the restora- tion of the Empire as to the prolongation of the ancient Monarchy, and the vagueness of his designs and his Buonapartist associations pointed in the THB ASSOOIATBB PATBIOTB. 277 former direction. They would not betray him, but they left him to pursue his dangerous course alone. On the night of the 14th of May, Didier marched against Grenoble at the head of about two hundred discharged soldiers and peasants of the district ; but General Donnadieu, the commandant of the town, was on the alert, having been warned by the police, who had tracked Didier to Lyons, back to Paris, and thence to Grenoble. At the head of the garrison he attacked and repulsed the insurgents, killing eight and taking sixty prisoners. He immediately sent to Paris a grossly exaggerated report of the affair, repre- senting that the insurgents numbered two thousand, and that the road leading from Grenoble to Chambery was covered with the dead and wounded, the former alone numbering more than a hundred. These exag- gerations created in the mind of the King the fear that invariably engenders cruelty; orders were sent to Grenoble that none of the convicted insurgents were to be spared, and a reward of eight hundred pounds was offered for the arrest of Didier, who had escaped into the mountains of Savoy. Before the in- human order of Louis XVIII. reached Grenoble the prisoners had been tried and convicted by the Pro- vostal Court, and three of them shot. Twenty-one others had obtained a temporary respite, but the royal orders were peremptory, and the whole of them were execiited. Didier himself was betrayed by a peasant who had sheltered him until the reward was offered, and, being given np to the Sardinian authorities, was surrendered by them to the French police and executed. This outbreak was followed, on the 8th of June, by 278 TEE ASSOCIATED PATRIOTS. a similar affair at Lyons, which had no connexion with the rising around Grenoble, and yet was not traced to the Associated Patriots. On the evening of the day mentioned the alarm-bells were rung in several villages around Lyons, and a body of armed men approached the city, but they were dispersed by the troops without much difficulty, and ten of them captured. Subsequent arrests raised the number of prisoners to more than two hundred ; and this move- ment, regarded in connexion with the recent con- spiracy in Paris, the insurrection at Grenoble, the disturbances that occurred about the same time at Nismes and Tarrascon, and the discovery of a branch of the Associated Patriots at Amiens, excited the most serious uneasiness in the minds of Louis and his Ministers. Decazes, who as Minister of Police. had the best means of forming a sound judgment of the wide-spread discontent which they indicated, had his eyes opened to the conviction that the system of government which had suffered such a tremendous collapse a generation before could not be maintained without another crash, and his influence with the King enabled him to impress his own views on the royal mind. Marshal Marmont was hastily sent to Lyons to avert the possible danger of another judicial massacre, and the result of this timely interposition was that no blood was shed there, and only the most deeply implicated of the accused were imprisoned. This danger averted, Decazes conferred with Pas- quier and Mol^, the leaders of the Constitutional Monarchists or moderate party, and arrived with them at the conclusion that the dynasty would not be safe without an extension of the franchise and the TEE ASSOCIATED PATRIOTS. 279 restoration of the system of direct election. Richelieu was brought to concur in this view, and the King, upon an elaborate memorial being laid before him, setting forth the necessity of the measure, acknow- ledged the correctness of his Minister's views and consented to adopt them. The Chambers were dis- solved, and by that manipulation of the electoral machinery which seems inseparable from the system of representative institutions in France the Royalists, as the partisans of the old regime were called, were reduced to a minority, and a majority was obtained to support the comparatively liberal views of a Ministry in which Count Mole, Marshal St. Cyr, and Baron Pasquier displaced men of absolutist tendencies. The modification of the electoral law, and of the laws affecting the press and individual liberty, gave the people little to be thankful forj however, the number of persons paying the amount of direct taxes which qualified them to vote being still little more than ninety thousand. But the collapse of the con- spiracy of the Associated Patriots had rendered the Republican leaders cautious, and disposed them to defer aggressive operations until they could com- mence them under better auspices and with an improved and extended organisation. The Holy Alliance loomed darkly over the whole of the Conti- nent; the hope of liberty which had inspired the heroic efforts of the Grermans for the libe^^-ation of their country from foreign domination had been crushed, and the cells of Spandau were filled with the men to whom Frederick William owed his throne; Britain was writhing under the heels of Sidmouth and Castlereagh ; the Inquisition had been 280 TEE A8800IATED PATBIOTS. re-established in Spain ; the Sovereigns of Italy ruled by sufferance of Austria. It was " the winter of the world,"* and the men who stood on the watch-towers of an exalted patriotism everywhere looked wearily abroad, unknowing the point of the horizon on which the first red streaks would herald freedom's dawn. * Shelley's Eevolt of Islam. CHAPTER VII. THE COMMUNEROS. ALIGHT that seemed the first glimmer of the dawn at length rose beyond the Pyrenees. One of those outbursts of indignant patriotism which have so fitfully, and to such little purpose, brightened the melancholy pages of Spanish history, produced the overthrow of despotism ; and Ferdinand VIT., in wild alarm for his throne, proclaimed the Constitution which had been established by the Cortes in 1812, and swore most solemnly to uphold it. This hopeful event was followed by similar revolutions ia Portugal, Naples, and Piedmont, the collapse of which in the Italian kingdoms, on the application of Austrian bayonets, has been related. Spain and Portugal were too fe,r distant for the legions of the Holy Alliance to overrun its soil, and trample its Constitution under their feet ; and the monarchs who assembled at Troppau in the autumn of 1820 were obliged to con- tent themselves, for the time at least, by proclaiming their displeasure at the audacity which the nations of the Iberian Peninsula had displayed in recovering the liberties which they had won when their native rulers had deserted them. As has happened in every similar movement, the men who made the Spanish revolution separated into 282 TSB COMMUNEAOS. two parties as soon as it was accomplished. There were the Constitutionalists who simply desired to put an end to despotism, royal and ecclesiastical, and were content when the power of the Sovereign was limited and defined, and their leaders were installed as his Ministers ; and there were the Constitutionalists who aimed at giving the fullest reality and a practical application to the instrument to which Ferdinand had set his hand, and the third article of which was as follows : — " The sovereignty is vested in the nation, to which, therefore, the right of making its funda- mental laws exclusively pertains." The two parties, united in the accomplishment of the revolution, natu- rally, therefore, became as widely separated from each other afterwards as the Whigs and the Eadicals of Britain became after 1 832. The arrest of Eiego was the signal for the with- drawal of these two parties into hostUe camps. That event produced an immense excitement all over Spain, and provoked demonstrations of antagonism to the Government in most of the large towns. In Madrid the bust of Eiego was carried through the streets in a procession, with flags and banners; the Liberal journals defended him ; the hall of the Landaburian Society rang with his praises, and with invectives against the Grovernment. The Ministers censured the attitude of the ultras, and resolved to suppress the demonstrations. The ultras persisted in making another manifestation in the capital, in \vhich there was borne in the procession a large picture, represent- ing Eiego holding in his hand the Constitution, and overthrowing figures symbolical of Despotism and Ignorance. The Eoyal Gruards were posted in the TSE OOMMUNEROS. 283 Puerto del Sol, with orders to stop the procession ; but, on its approach, they presented arms, and raised a cry of " Eiego and the Constitution !" Another regiment, excited by the cries of the Gruards and the processionists, poured out from its barracks and joined in the demonstration. In vain did the ofEcers of the Guards command them to charge and disperse the pro- cession. They refused to obey, and the processionists and their militaiy sympathisers shouted Viva Riego ! until they were hoarse. Murillo, the Captain-General of Madrid, at length brought up the National Guards, who charged the processionists with the bayonet, and dispersed them in every direction. The breach between the two sections of the Con- stitutional party now became complete, and the ultras organised themselves under the direction of Balesteros, Morales, Palarea, and others, as the Society of the Communeros. The name was derived from the cojti- munes, and had no reference, as asserted by Alison, to the doctrine of common property. As the mode- rate Constitutionalists were all Freemasons, and had used the Masonic system as a means of concerting in secret the movement which brought about the revolution,* the ultras thought they could best pro- mote their aims by adopting a similar organisation. "The essential object of the Confederation," the statutes of the Society set forth, "is to support at any sacrifice the rights and liberties of the Spanish people, as laid down in the Political Constitution of the kingdom, recognising as an unalterable principle the third article of the said Constitution." The * Quin's Visit to Spain. 284 THE 00MMUNEE08. statutes, the oaths, the initiatory discourses contain no other profession of political faith than this. There were no grades in the Society, all the members being on the same level. The members of each province constituted a commune, and each commune was divided into an indefinite number of local societies, designated towers. A tower comprised any number of members over seven and not exceeding fifty, except in the case of military corps. In places where the number of members was less than seven, the initiated formed a fort, which was subordinate to the nearest tower. The constitution of the Society was representative, and essentially democratic. The apex was formed by the Supreme Assembly, in which each commune was represented by a single delegate, and whose functions were the direction of the affairs of the Society in accordance with its institutions, and conformably to the political circumstances of the nation, the enforce- ment of the statutes, the constituting of communes, the communication of resolutions and instructions to the juntas, the receipt and application of the funds accruing from the contributions of the members, and the changing of the pass-words, signs, and counter- signs. The officers of the Assembly comprised a commander, lieutenant-commander, alcaid, treasurer, and four secretaries. The place of meeting was called the Alcazar. The alcaid was charged with its secu- rity, the custody of the seal, and the audit of the accounts. The delegates were divided into three committees, whose respective functions were justice, vigilance, and administration. The statutes provided that there should be in the Alcazar, " various inscriptions to record the glorious THE 00MMUNEB08. 285 actions of the heroes of the Confederation. In the front there shall be placed a sepulchral urn, in which shall be deposited the ashes of the most illustrious Communeros, if they can be obtained, as well as the documents relating to their deeds of heroism; and in defect of the former a statue shall be substituted. At a short distance from the urn shall be placed a table covered with a purple cloth, on which shall be placed a shield painted with the arms of the Con- federation, and also the seal of the Society; chairs for the President and officers shall be arranged at its extremity, and benches along the sides. At the end of the benches shall be placed three circular towers, with battlements of a height proportioned to the chamber, equidistant from each other, and in a line. On the middle one shall be inscribed, T/ie Con- stitution of the Kingdom; on the right-hand one, the Third Article of the Constitution of the Kingdom; and on the left-hand one, The Confederation sustains at any sacrifice the Bights and Liberties of the Spanish People. On each tower shall wave a flag of the Confederation, purple, with a white castle in the centre. The door shall be fortified by a portcullis and drawbridge, which shall be raised during the sittings, and guarded by five lancers." The affairs of a commune were administered by a junta, composed of the delegates of the towers, and having for its officers a governor, lieutenant-governor, alcaid, treasurer, and two secretaries. The delegates to a junta were divided into two committees, whose attributes were justice and vigilance. The juntas were charged with the enforcement of the statutes in the communes, the adoption of measures of urgency 286 THE COMMUNEBOS. when there was no time to communicate with, the Supreme Assembly, the constituting of towers, and the communication to the towers of the resolutions and instructions of the Supreme Assembly. The place of meeting was called the Castle of Liberty. The officers of a tower were an alcaid, a treasurer, a secretary, and one called the captain of the keys, who combined the duties of a doorkeeper with those of a master of the ceremonies of initiation. Besides carrying into effect the resolutions and instructions of the Supreme Assembly and the communal juntas, the towers occupied themselves in diffusing a knowledge of the Constitution, discussing its provisions, and proposing to the juntas whatever they considered would be conducive to its improvement, or to the welfare of the country. The forts might also discuss such matters, and communicate the results to the towers to which they were subordinate. The candidates for initiation were called recruits, and the ceremony of their reception enlisfmenf. The statutes provided that, " In order to be enlisted under the standard of the Confederation, it is necessary that the candidate should be in complete possession of the rights of a Spaniard ; that he should be above nine- teen years of age ; that he should be of correct habits, and have the reputation of an honourable man among his companions ; that he should follow some trade or profession, or should have an income suflRcient for his subsistence ; that he should be attached to the Con- stitutional system of the kingdom, and should abhor tyranny in every form ; that he should take the oaths of the institution, and subject himself to the proofs and formalities required by the regulations for this THE 00MMUNBR08. 287 act." The recruit had to be proposed by a Com- munero, who was required to inform himself as to the aspirant's political opinions, and apprise him of the objects of the Confederation, " but in a vague manner, without discovering its nature or circumstances, or the persons of whom it is composed." The object of this precaution is obvious. If the recruit was re- jected, he was not in a position to give any informa- tion to persons who might make use of it to the injury of the Society, Proposals for the admission of new members had to be made in writing, and signed by the proposer, setting forth the candidate's name, age, occupation or profession, birthplace, and residence. Neither the towers nor the communes had the authority to admit members, all proposals being submitted to the Supreme Assembly. Inquiries concerning the cha- racter and antecedents of the candidate were made by the committee of vigilance, and, if the results were satisfactory, the question of admitting the aspirant was decided by ballot. A majority of six-sevenths of the delegates present was required, and even then the decision was not conclusive, a second ballot taking place in the junta of the commune in which the can- didate resided. If a majority of two-thirds was then obtained, the candidate was admitted in the tower in which he had been proposed. Previous to the initiation, the captain of the keys impressed the recruit with a due sense of the grave obligations which he was about to contract, and ad- ministered the following oath : — " I swear to keep secret, during my life, whatever I have heard or understood from the time that I deter- 288 THE 00MMUNBB08. mined to ofter myself for admission to this assembly, and also whatever I may see or understand hereafter relating to it." The recruit was then left alone for a short time, that he might read the statutes of the Society, after which he was required to answer in writing the following queries : — " 1. What are the . most sacred obligations a citizen owes to his country? 2. What punishment would you inflict on him who failed in those obligations ? 3. How would you reward him who sacrificed everything to a strict com- pliance with them?" The answers being conformable to the principles of the Society, the recruit was led into the meeting-room of the tower, where he took and signed the oath of the Communeros in the fol- lowing form : — " I swear before Grod, and upon my honour, before this assembly of Communeros, that I will guard and defend, at every hazard, and by every means in my power, wherever I shall be, whether alone or in company with confederates, the rights and liberties of the Spanish nation, as they are set forth in the political Constitution of the kingdom, recognising, as an unalterable basis, that the sovereignty resides essentially in the nation, and that, therefore, to it exclusively belongs the right of making its funda- mental laws, as is literally expressed in the third article of the same. I swear also to guard and obey the statutes and regulations of the Confederation, and such orders conformable with them as may be given to me by the officers of the said Confederation. I swear likewise to preserve during my life the most inviolable secrecy with respect to all the affairs of the said Confederation, and to maintain unalterable union THE COMMUNEBOS. 289 and fraternal friendslup with all confederates, assisting them with my person and property in all dangers and necessities, and submitting to amicable conciliation any complaint or grievance whicb I may have against one or more of them. And, lastly, I swear to main- tain and defend, at every bazard, the aforesaid, and, imitating the illustrious Padilla and Lanuza, to die with arms in my hands, rather than submit to tyranny. And if I should fail to perform these solemn oaths, I declare myself a traitor and perjurer to the Confederation, and deserving to be igno- miniously expelled from it, and subject to such other penalties as it may inflict." Then all the members present rose from their seats, sword in hand, and the President thus addressed the recruit : — " You are now a Communero ; and in proof of it, aU the Communeros will defend you from all the strokes which malignity may aim at you, if you comply with the obligations of your oath ; but if not, you will suffer the penalties which are prescribed in the code for offences against the Confederation." The recruit was then invested with a scarf, and the captain of the keys placed the flag of the Confederation in his left hand, saying :—" This is the invincible and glorious standard of the Confederation of the Commu- neros, dyed in the blood of Padilla. Your country and the Confederation hope th'at you will imitate that hero, by meeting death rather than see this glorious standard outraged by a tyrant." The alcaid next placed a sword in his hand, saying :— " This is the sword of your country : I deliver it to you that you may defend the liberties guaranteed by the Con- stitution of the kingdom, and the sacred principle VOL. I. u 290 THU G0MMUNEB08. that the sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. , The Confederation confides in your honour; but if you fail in your obligations, may the Supreme Being, who sees your heart, pursue you to your destruction." The penalties prescribed by the penal code of the Confederation for offences against its principles and statutes were expulsion, which might be ignomi- nious, forced, or tacit ; separation, public or private ; censure, public or private; warning; and fines, the last varying in amount from four to forty reals vellon. By the fifth article, any member who con- spired directly and overtly to destroy or alter those statutes of the Confederation which were iden- tified with the Constitution of the kingdom was con- sidered a traitor and a perjurer, and condemned to be ignominiously expelled and deprived of his scarf and card; his name was to be erased, and his sentence communicated to all the towers, so that he might be shunned by all the members as a dangerous person and an enemy to the welfare and interests of the Society and the nation. Minor oflPences were punished by minor penalties, and special tribunals were con- stituted, as among the Carbonari, for trying the offenders and awarding the due punishment of their offences. Members might withdraw from the Society at pleasure, but before terminating their connexion with it, were required to give up all distinctive deco- rations and documents that might be in their posses- sion, to maintain secrecy with regard to the affairs of the Society, and to abstain from doing anything con- trary to its institutions. The private and social duties of the members were prescribed by statutes similar to those adopted by the Carbonari for the same purpose. THE OOMMUNEBOS. 291 The meetings of tlie Communeros were opened by the commandant or governor with the following formula : — - " Companions ! A fatality defeated the endeavours of our heroic predecessors on the field of Yillalar. Three ages of despotism and slavery followed that unfortunate event; and although the nation, con- ducted to the brow of the precipice, recovered its liberty in 1808, at the expense of such great sacrifices, yet in 1814 our want of prudence and energy plunged us afresh into the deep abyss of slavery. Six years of blood and desolation passed over us, and then we saw again our liberties re-established in the code of our rights — the Spanish Constitution. Let us be on the alert, and let us resolve to die rather than consent to the privation of this deposit of our liberties, which has consecrated the national sovereignty as an immu- table principle. Do you swear it, Communeros ?" All the members present, with their right hands on their swords, responded, "Yes, we swear it!" The formula for closing the session was more brief: it was as follows : — " Let us retire, Communeros, to give rest to our minds and to repair the strength of our bodies, that we may return with fresh vigour to the defence of our country's liberties." On being elected to any office in the Society, a Communero was required to take and subscribe an oath in the following terms: — "I swear to observe the most profound secrecy concerning whatever may be confided to me relative to the exercise of my office, however dangerous the circumstances in which I may be placed, and to faithfully transmit to my successor such information as may be entrusted to me." V 2 292 THE C0MMUNEE08. The most important of the communes were those of N'ew Castile, Arragon, Catalonia, Valencia, and Murcia, the strength of the Society being in the bar- racks and workshops of Madrid, Saragossa, Barcelona, Valencia, and Carthagena. Eiego was suspected of being a member of the Saragossa tower, and he is said to have just returned from a tour of propagandism when he was arrested. The elections of 1822, the results of which were greatly influenced by the efforts of the Communeros, placed the Cortes in a position of antagonism to the Government, the ultras constituting a large majority, so that the Ministers were in a similar situation to that occupied in France by the Richelieu Ministry in 1816, with the diiference that the majority opposed to the latter consisted of Absolutists, while in the Spanish Cortes the majority was composed of the Democratic party, comprising a great many Com- muneros. The only noble was the Duke of Pasque, who was a member of the Corresponding Society of European Patriots, instituted by GreneraJ Pepe. Riego was chosen for President, and an attitude assumed by the majority which foreboded one of those struggles for power which occur only in countries where the principles of constitutional government are imperfectly understood. In England, a general elec- tion, resulting in the return of a large majority opposed to the party administering the Grovernment, would be immediately followed by a change of Ministry ; but continental statesmen have not recognised the neces- sity of this course even yet, as was shown in the earlier years of the administration of Bismarck, and the Ministers of Ferdinand VII. followed the example TEE 00MMUNEB08. 293 furnished on the other side of the Pyrenees by Richelieu. The diflBculty of the situation was increased by the absolutist tendencies of the King, and the attitude of foreign Powers. It had been proposed by Prince Metternich that the resolution adopted by the Holy Alliance, at the Congress of Troppau, against " States which the overthrow of authority by revolt had placed in a hostile attitude towards every legitimate Grovern- ment" should be enforced by the landing of an Austro- Eussian army on the coast of Spain; but the project was so emphatically condemned by the British Govern- ment that it was abandoned, and replaced by another scheme, also emanating from Metternich, by which Prance was to be used for the purpose. Bichelieu having died a few months before the assembling of the Congress of Verona, and the office of President of the Council having been allowed to remain in abey- ance, the French Ministry was left without a head, and Montmorency, its chief representative at Yerona, committed his Government to intervention in Spain, before Villele,who was tardily chosen by Louis XVIII. to fill the vacant chair in the Council, was aware of the nefarious project which the Austrian Minister had devised. On the 30th of November the representatives of Eussia, Austria, Prussia, and Prance at the Congress of Verona signed a protocol, by which it was agreed that a separate note should be presented by each to the Court of Madrid, declaring its abhorrence of the outrages alleged to have been committed by the Government of the revolution, and the thraldom im- posed upon the Sovereign; and intimating that it 294 TEE G0MMUNEB08. was impossible for them to regard with indifference the existing condition of Spain, or to refrain from insisting that the Government should be restored to harmonj with that of the Great Powers. Three of the Powers — the exception being France — presented notes to the Court of Madrid in this sense ; and, not receiving satisfactory replies, withdrew their Ambas- sadors, and became importunate with the French Government that it should adopt a similar course, according to the engagement entered into at Verona. Villele shrank from the possible danger to the Government of Louis XVIII. of forcible interven- tion, and accepted an oflPer of mediation from the British Government in the hope of averting a war. The British and French Ambassadors at Madrid failed, however, in their efforts to induce the Spanish Government to undertake such a modification of the Constitution as would pare down the liberties of Spain to the standard established in Britain and France. Even if the Cabinet of Madrid had been disposed to yield to the demand, the Cortes would have rejected it with the utmost indignation. The final determination of the French Government to invade Spain and effect a counter-revolution pro- duced great agitation on both sides of the Pyrenees. As will be shown in the next chapter, the Carbonari made common cause with the Communeros, and their leaders strove, by inciting the French troops to revolt, not only to preserve the Spanish Constitution, but to effect a revolution in France. The Communeros aided their efforts by sending over the Pyrenees, for distribution among the French troops concentrated at THE 00MMUKEB08. 295 Toulouse, addresses penned by Montarlot, a refugee retained by Eiego, inciting them to revolt. The impending intervention intensified tbe patriotic ardour of the Communeros, and embittered their antagonism to the Grovernment. Their organ, the Patriota Espanol, maintained a vigorous and per- sistent opposition to the Ministry of the minority, and missed no opportunity of creating political capital for their leaders out of the failures and mistakes of the party in power. The Zurriaga,* a smaller paper, edited by Morales, attacked the King and the Ministers with relentless irony and the bitterest acrimony. The disturbances which occurred during the winter in Madrid, Pampeluna, Barcelona, and Valencia, and which were attributed to the priests, increased the prevailing discord, and were made the subject of inquiry by a committee of the Cortes, resulting in a farther discredit of a King who was longing for his extrication by foreign bayonets from Constitutional trammels, and Ministers who, however good their intentions, were rendered powerless, on the one hand by their loyalty to a faithless King, on the other by want of harmony with the majority. Repeated efforts were made to reconcile the differ- ences between the two sections into which the Constitutionalists were unhappily divided ; but they all failed, and the state of the country became every day more deplorable. Tumults broke out at Cadiz and other places, and on the 25th of February, 1823, a Communero deputation, consisting of two military * Spanish for scourge. 296 TnE 00MMUNEB08. officers and a priest, the former representingrespectively the regulars and the militia, obtained an audience of the King, and warned him of a design to bring about a new revolution on the 1st of March, for the purpose of deposing him, and establishing a regency. They assured him that the Communeros, whom they repre- sented as numbering forty-five thousand, were on the alert, and would frustrate the design, being resolved to defend the Constitution and the Crown against all attacks. Ferdinand had no partiality for his Ministers, Con- stitutionalists of all shades being equally the objects of his aversion and distrust; and he was easily induced to dismiss them in the hope that an infusion of ultra-Liberalism in the Ministry would avert the gathering storm until the French crossed the Pyrenees. In this hope he called Estrada to his councils, and associated with him General Torrijos, a zealous Com- munero, as Minister for War, and Moral, who had the repute of belonging to that Society, as Minister of the Interior. These concessions did not satisfy the Communeros, and the Cortes, by a Parliamentary manoeuvre, prevented the new Ministers from assuming the functions of government. Estrada and his colleagues, with the exception of Torrijos, thereupon resigned ; and Ferdinand accepted their resignation as a body, but declined to part with Estrada. The experience of the fifty years which have elapsed since that critical period of Spanish history renders it very doubtful whether the Constitution could have been long maintained, even if a counter- revolution had not been effected by French arms. The King was faithless, bigoted, and incapable almost TEE OOMMUNBBOS. 297 to the point of imbecility, and therefore a mere pup- pet in the hands of the priests. The Constitution, which he regarded as a degradation of the monarchical office, allowed him power enough to clog its working for the welfare of the State, and the Ministers nomi- nated in conformity with it had not the confidence of either himself or the Cortes. The priests regarded the Constitution with abhorrence, and the masses were too ignorant and demoralised to understand it and to appreciate the liberties which it conferred. The Constitutional cause was not, therefore, regarded as the popular cause ; it was supported only by the better educated and more intelligent of the people, whose enlightenment and enthusiasm prevented them from conceiving the idea that the majority of the nation was too ignorant and bigoted to regard it otherwise than with indifierence or dislike. Under such a Sovereign as Ferdinand representative institutions could only result in a struggle between the Crown and the Cortes, which was averted tempo- rarily by the interposition of Ministers who were theoretically the representatives of the latter. But if the struggle had been prolonged, it must have ended in either the triumph of the Communeros or a counter-revolution in the interest of absolutism; and the experience of the last fifty years renders it almost certain that the latter event would have followed the former. The faithlessness of the King and the incapacity of the Ministers became evident when the French armies poured through the passes of the Pyrenees in the early days of April. Ferdinand became anxious to leave Madrid, and scarcely any preparations were 298 TSB C0MMUNEB08. made by the Government to resist an invasion wticli had been impending since the deliberations of Troppau. Of the Grenerals under whom the inadequate and ill- provided armies of Spain took the field, only Eiego and Mina displayed either courage or capacity for command. 'As the French advanced, the Spanish forces retired, and the Government proposed that the King and the Cortes should remove to Seville. The Communeros opposed this design, and a plan to prevent its execution was concerted ; but dissen- sions arose among them in the hour of trial, and when the invaders drew near Madrid, the seat of the Court and the Legislature was transferred to the Andalusian capital. On the 23rd of May the vanguard of the French army entered Madrid, and on the 25th the Duke of Angouleme made his public entry into the capital, the inhabitants of which were assured by a procla- mation that he came amongst them with the most benevolent designs. This announcement was followed by the establishment of a Provisional Government, at the head of which the Duke of Infantado was placed. Some desultory efforts were made to oppose the march of the French towards Seville, but in the end Balesteros, O'Donnell, and Morillo, who held the chief commands, capitulated, and resistance in the field ceased. The Cortes, when the Constitutional cause became desperate, declared the King incapable of reigning through mental imbecility, and appointed a Provisional Government under the presidency of Valdez. They then removed to Cadiz, holding the King under restraint. The French occupied Seville on the 21st of June, and then marched upon Cadiz, THE GOMMUNBBOS. 299 having in less than three months traversed the whole extent of Spain. The Duke of Angouleme offered to guarantee a general amnesty, and the concession of a Constitution that would assimilate the political institutions of the kingdom to those of France ; but the Provisional Crovernment installed by the Cortes refused to submit, and Cadiz was subjected, in consequence, to the horrors of a siege. The defenders prolonged their resistance for three months, surrendering on the 1st of October, when the Provisional Government was dis- solved, and Ferdinand restored to the exercise of absolute sovereignty. The first use which the exe- crable despot made by his liberty was to order the arrest and execution of Eiego, who was hanged in a most barbarous manner, though Ferdinand had pre- viously professed to regard him as a friend, and to admit him to his inmost confidence. Thus ended the earthly career of one of the most heroic men whom Spain has ever produced. Torrijos escaped to Gibraltar, or he would probably have shared the fate of Eiego. He avoided it only for the time. In 1831, when the downfall of the Bourbons in France had revived the hopes of the friends of liberty in every part of Europe, he entered into correspondence with some oflBcers of the Spanish army, who treacherously lured him, with several more refugees, to Spanish territory, and then betrayed him. Torrijos and his companions were surrounded and captured, tried by court-martial, and condemned to death, which sentence was executed with barbarous haste upon the whole of the prisoners. All the acts of the Constitutional Government were 300 TEE C0MMTJNEB08. declared null and void, and despotism restored upon its old basis. The Duke of Angoul^me was urgent with Ferdinand for the grant of a general amnesty, but he prevailed only so far as to induce the tyrant to pardon a few of those who had taken very small parts in the exciting events of the two years preceding the French intervention. The amnesty proclaimed by Ferdinand was nominally general, but there were so many exceptions, including nearly the whole of those who had worked in the Constitutional cause, from the revolt at Leon to the deposition at Seville, that it resembled rather an act of proscription. END OF VOL. I.