1792 John Money
Géricault Life
1836 La Garde nationale de Paris part pour l’armée, septembre 1792 (detail) Léon Cogniet, Versailles.
Introduction
In 1792 John Money was an English officer recruited by the government of Louis XVI to serve as as a general in the French army. This Money did during the infancy of the French republic until his return to England in 1793. Military men were often recruited or drafted to serve in foreign military forces. Even so, Money’s experiences are unique and offer an interesting window on these events during this critical period for France, Europe, and the Géricault family. We offer here an extended excerpt (edited lightly) of Money’s time in France before and after August 10th, 1792.
John Money’s account of the attack on the Tuileries Palace on August 10, 1792, is important in its own right as a unique record, and for us because Money references Brunton’s haberdashery at the Hôtel de Longueville. As we have discussed, the Hôtel de Longueville was an important economic and cultural center in the heart of the Tuileries long overlooked in most studies of Paris during this timee. All Théodore Géricault’s Paris relations, and perhaps his relations in Rouen, would have been familiar with all the businesses based at the Hôtel de Longueville.
John Money’s Account
“…Having received several letters from Paris in the spring of 1792, written at the request of some of the members of the National Assembly, and by the direction of the Minister of War, inviting me to receive the rank of Marechal de Camp, and to raise a legion – not seeing at that time, the least probability of a war with any power whatever, or any liklihood of being employed at home, I accepted the invitation, and in the month of May went to Paris… This being arranged, as well as a plan for raising a legion on the frontiers of the Belgic provinces, where I had served in their revolution as Major-general, I left Paris, and returned to England, to prepare for the campaign. It was not before the month of July that I went back to France; the King was then in the plenitude of his power, as far as the constitution gave it to him; and I will be bold to say of myself, as an individual; that I was a friend to monarchical government…
At Paris I found a new ministry – during my absence La Fayette had been there and had turned out the Jacobin party; he thought, I presume, that they would not answer his purposes. Lajard, the new minister of war, knew nothing of the engagements I had made with his predecessor in office, or pretended not to know them, and therefore received me with coolness; but when a member of the assembly, whom I took with me, assured him the decree had passed solely on my account, giving leave to the Pouvoir Executif to take four foreign generals into the service, he made no further difficulty of giving me the commission of Marechal de Camp, (Paris, 19 July 1792) indeed, he did not dare to refuse it. A few days afterwards, another minister was appointed in the war department, a Mr. Dabancourt… I went with M. Dabancourt to the palace and was there introduced. The King asked me a few questions, such as, where I had served, and with whom, &c.
The fatal 10th of August happened shortly after, and although a variety of accounts of those memorable events have been already given, yet a relation of them from myself may not be thought impertinent, being then at Paris; and having had an opportunity of informing myself of every particular of that calamitous day.
A little before twelve at night on the 9th, my aide de camp came into my room, and informed me that the Marseillois and the mob of St. Antoine were going to attack the Thuilleries, intending to massacre the royal family; that the drums were beating to arms in every district in Paris, and the tocsin (alarm bells) sounding. He asked me what I intended to do – I desired a few moments to consider; I then told him I would certainly go to the palace; that the King, who had made me a general in his army, had a claim on my exertions, and I would risk my life to defend him.
I had gone to bed – I rose immediately and we dressed ourselves in our uniforms and went to the Thuilleries. We met no one in the street but a batallion of national guards with two pieces of cannon who were going to the palace. We joined them and entered the court at the same time. We found M. Lajard the ci-devant minister and M. Dabancourt at the Corps de garde, and with them several general officers. I told them I was come to protect the person of the King, as far as an individual could do so, and asked for a firelock if there was one to spare; my reception was flattering and honorable; they exclaimed, Voilà un veritable Anglois (There you see – a true Englishman!) I then went up into the King’s apartments with an old general who wore a star and a red riband, but whose name I now forget; there we found near a hundred officers in different orders, all of whom showed me great civility.
During the night reports were brought ever half hour of the mouvements of the Marseillois; we heard three cannons fired, which we considered as signals, but of what we could not tell; an awful silence succeeded each shot in every apartment of the palace. Before I has ascended into the royal apartments, I had seen Penthion (Mayor of Paris) in the court below; he was considered by some as a spy. A man seeing me in a general’s uniform, told me, he thought that he ought to be gardé à vue (taken into custody); but as this did not concern me, I referred him to M. Lajard, Adjunt-general to the corps de garde…
At six in the morning we were told the King intended going to the Assembly for protection; that Penthion had left the palace between two and three, having been sent for to the National Assembly, which had been sitting all night. I fortunately took the resolution of going there also, and endeavoured to get in before the King arrived, thinking it would be difficult to obtain admission when he should be there; but when we came to the National Assembly, the guards refused to admit us. I then took off my epaulettes and got back to my hotel, having passed a batallion of national guards on the place de Vendome, but at some distance. Several murders had been committed here in the night, and had they known from whence I came, I would not have escaped “des horreurs inconnues jusques alors commises à la place Vendome” by a National Guard. (note from M. de St. Croix’s Histoire de la Conspiration du 10 Août, p. 18). I arrived at my hotel rue de Petite Pierre unmolested.
At half after nine I was called and informed that the Marseillois had brought four pieces of cannon to the Carousel, and were going to fire on the palace, intending to level it with the ground. At a quarter before ten the firing began; it even then appeared to me that there was a possibility to put a stop to the firing and the effusion of human blood… My design was to have gone to the Carousel with a white flag, and I had tied a white handerchief to my cane for this purpose…It is certain that I should have been soon murdered, had I made such an attempt.
About twelve the firing abated; at one I went out with some English gentlemen, if possible to see the palace. But the streets being crowded with troops, and with the mob of Paris carrying the bloody trophies of their barbarity and murder on pikes and bayonets, and meeting also a man who fancied he knew me and was very insolent, I thought it prudent to return. I did not leave the hotel any more that day, for the danger I had incurred hourly became more manifest. It is impossible to ascertain how many heads of the unfortunate Swiss were taken off and carried about the streets, or how many people lost their lives: very few escaped who remained in the palace after the King left it. A piece of a general officer’s coat was brought to me, who been murdered, to let me see the risk I had run had I gone the next day to the palace.
All the dead bodies had been removed the evening before, or early that morning. I saw one load of them brought out of a house in the rue St. Honoré: these I was informed were thieves detected with the plunder of the palace upon them. I did not venture up into any of the royal apartments, lest I should meet any national guard that might know me, but those who went there said that all the floors were covered with blood.
The next day, having taken pains to disguise myself, I visited the Thuilleries, and made every inquiry that I could do with prudence, how the attack began. At M. Brunton’s on the Carousel [in the Hôtel de Longueville, as noted: see Commerce – Culture in our March issue] I was informed by an English gentleman, who from a window saw the whole affair, that the Marseillois came upon the Carousel before nine o’clock, with four pieces of cannon, which they pointed on the palace at the distance of about one hundred and fifty yards. The Swiss then appeared at all the windows of the upper apartments. The gate into the court was shut. There was a batallion of national guards in the court, probably the same with which I had entered during the night. The Swiss several times called to them to come into the Thuilleries, and waved their hats to them for that purpose, but they refused the invitation.
The Marsellois and mob first broke open the gate into the court; they then proceeded to the palace, through which is a passage into the garden of the Thuilleries. There are iron grills to this passage through the Thuilleries. They suffered them to break the grills, and enter the palace, probably thinking they would pass through; but the Marsellois then attempted to mount the great staircase, in order to enter into the royal apartments. The stairs were lined with the Swiss, who refused them admittance. Here the contest commenced, but who fired first no one can tell, as probably those who were present are not living; for the carnage was very dreadful, and the contest fought with wonderful bravery.
My servant, who went to the palace of the Thuilleries between twelve and one immediately after the firing ceased, gave me the following account: he says, on the Carousel were a number of Marsellois, some dead, others dying of their wounds; in the court before the palace were many headless bodies of the Swiss. Some of the national guards, who, perhaps, were not in the conflict, were piercing the dead bodies with their swords and bayonets; either out revenge, or to boast of deeds they had not performed; the women had their share in these disgraceful scenes, some with savage fury were kicking about the dead, others were hacking them with swords they snatched from the national guards. The number of dead bodies on and at the foot of the stairs, struck him with so much horror, that he did not venture into the upper apartments; from the palace he crossed the gardens of the Thuilleries, there he saw a number of dead bodies in coloured clothes. In a small house where lived the Dauphin’s preceptor, nine of the Swiss and a boy were laid, and as many without; what is very extraordinary, books, pens, and ink were on a table, just as if the Dauphin and has preceptor had but just quitted the room: this I observed the day after, and thousands had been spectators of the same scene of blood…
A rumour was soon passed through Paris that the Swiss had fired first. Those who had quitted the palace were pursued into the garden, and were stabbed on their knees begging for mercy, as well as there were many gentlemen who had made their escape from the palace. Seventy, however, of the Swiss were taken by some humane battalion, and sent to the Hotel de Ville, where they were detained for some time; but as the municipality would not have anything to do with them, pretending they had no jurisdiction to try them, they were turned out amongst the mob, who put them all to death on the Place de Greve (in front of the Hotel de Ville).
Thirty-five of these unfortunate men escaped from the gardens, on seeing that no quarter was given, and got as far as the Champs Elyzées, where they found the 5th battalion of Paris drawn up. The Lieutenant-colonel of this battalion who was under my command during a part of the [coming] campaign, related to me the circumstance of their murder, and apparently with pleasure, but which I heard with secret horror and indignation; he said these unhappy men implored mercy upon their knees; “but,” added he, “we did not regard this, but put them all to death, and our men took off most of their heads and fixed them on their bayonets.” Let me ask the reader, if a battalion of English could be induced to commit so horrid an act? Several of the Swiss were saved in the National Assembly, where they went as guards to the King; hearing what passed at the Thuilleries, they forced their way into the Assembly; these were again and again demanded by the mob, and saved though not without difficulty. About one hundred and thirty only out of six or seven hundred escaped.
The consternation of the royal family, who were then in one of the lodges joining the Assembly, is not easily to be described; and the members themselves were under great apprehension. Madame Teroigne was the whole day on horseback on the Place de Vendome, encouraging the mob to break into the Assembly, and bring out the Queen, that she might put her to death with her own hands.
No one can precisely tell how many lost their lives on this dreadful day; of the Swiss about four hundred, but of the gentlemen and servants of the King, no one knows how many, much less of the Marseillois and the mob. The gates of Paris were immediately shut, and search made for every man who had been in the Thuilleries the night of the ninth, as well as those who had been attached to the King…
The commanding officer of the Marseillois and Madame Teroigne dined with some English gentlemen in the next room to me on the 14th; he then boasted of having put seven Swiss to death with his own hand, who had hid themselves in a closet in the Queen’s apartments. Had this tyger known I had been in the palace, and at that time in the house, he would not have had many scruples about murdering me. I, however, was all day on my guard, with my pistols loaded on my table. I did not feel like a man who had committed a crime in going to the palace to defend the King’s life, he being a part of that constitution for which I went to fight.
I got one at length to return to England being then determined not to serve a people who had committed such acts of barbarity. I had, however, many difficulties to encounter. I thought not of a French officer to whom I had promised a situation in my legion, if I could raise it. To him I had imprudently mentioned my design of returning to England, but he was vehemently against my leaving France; and on the 15th I received a letter from M. Claviere, who was appointed minister for the time, informing me that he had found among his papers my propositions to raise a legion. He assured me that I should meet with no farther difficulties.
This letter distressed me much. I knew there must have been an intelligence between this officer and the Minister, and I was conscious that my life was in the hands of the former, as I had imprudently informed him, that I was in the palace in the night of the 9th of August. He knew I wished to return to England, and not to serve, but this, he said was impossible; for in that case it would be manifest declaration to the Minister, that I was a creature of the King, and a traitor to the public cause.
As to serving, I told him I had no objections, but with respect to the legion I would consult Gen. Dillon*, who commanded the Army at Valenciennes. I thought that by getting to that place I should be able to reach England. I therefore wrote to the Minister the letter here annexed. To this answer to the Minister’s letter my friend objected. The minister, he said, would see my intention was not to serve. I assured him that was not the case and, moreover, I affirmed that if Gen. Dillon advised my raising the legion, I would do so, and that I should act as he would direct. This I begged him to tell M. Berthier, who was under-secretary of war, and from whom I had received civlities. Fortunately I heard no more from the minister. I therefore left Paris with my aide de camp on the 20th of August, and set out for Valenciennes.
I came to Chantilly the first night, intending to stay there two or three days. Here I found a battalion of National guards, who came to demolish all the fine statues of bronze they could find and to carry off every thing from the Prince de Condé’s palace that was of any value. They had butchered a poor man the day before who was drunk, and they had paraded the town with his head upon a spike. The people at Chantilly were greatly alarmed. They knew not whose turn might be next for the inhabitants here, for the greatest part of them were esteemed aristocrats, being tenants and dependants of the Prince de Condé. Not liking the insolent manner of the Parisians whom we saw here, we left Chantilly the next day and crossed the country into the road to Peronne and Cambray, &c.
The following night we were obliged to take up our abode at a small public-house at Cuvilly from the extreme badness of the weather. There we found several carriage-drivers who asked us (as the people had done along the road) news from Paris, and whether were there on the 10th of August. Yes, we told them, we have had that misfortune. Misfortune, replied they: “vous êtes donc des B. d’aristocrates.” (You are then bastard? aristocrats.) Not at all, said we; we are English, and are returning to our own country; and adding, that we had nothing to do with them or their politics, we produced our passports. The looks of these people were not a little suspicious, and their confession afterwards confirmed the opinion we entertained of them. For they said they also were at Paris on that glorious day (as they called it) and carried pikes. They were of the Parish of St. Antoine and were with those who first entered the Thuilleries; and we had, they continued, each of us the head of a Swiss at the end of our pikes. One of them said he had a brother in the country who was a great aristocrat when he left him; but if he found him so still he would cut his throat, as he also would of any whom he should meet with that there.
Having heard this declaration from six or seven such ruffians, we took some necessary precautions that night, by loading our pistols and securing the door of our room; for there was no assistance to be had, if they had thought proper to rob, or even to murder us. We found some few on the road, who heard with indignation of the murder of the Swiss, and the confinement of the King; but we were very cautious after this adventure, in what manner we related the events of the 10th of August. At Cambray I left my carriage, and went to Valenciennes to see Gen. Dillon. My intention was to have returned to Cambray, to have gone to Lille, there to have sold my horses and proceeded to England; but the reasons Gen. Dillon gave me, why I ought to serve the campaign, induced me to follow his advice; he urged, that as I had accepted the rank of general in the army, the world would say I came for that purpose only; that I was in honor bound to serve; that the decheance of the king was only provisoire, and as an additional inducement, he offered me the command of the avant-garde of the army of La Fayette, who was gone off, and of which army Gen. Dillon then thought he was to have commend. I deferred giving him an answer till the next day, and having well weighed these reasons in my mind, I thought it would be disgraceful to return to England, when the army was in the field, and after the offer was made me; indeed I thought that as a military man my only object was to serve, and learn my profession; their politics, religion, or constitution ought not with such views to bias my mind. I then determined to go with him to Sedan, where the army of La Fayette at that time was. Gen. Dillon introduced me to Gen. Dumourier and the commissaries of the National Assembly, then at Valenciennes. I perceived that Gen. Dillon made a detour by the back street to avoid the Grand Place, which was generally crowded with people; this I ascribed to some apprehensions he might be under from the decree of the National Assembly which had thrown a censure upon him, decreeing that he had lost the confidence of the Nation, in consequence of an order he had given, declaring the constitution violated by the decree of the 10th of August, on the decheance of the King. General Dumourier set out on the 26th of August for Sedan, intelligence being received of the surrender of Longwy; and when we followed him the next day; when we arrived at Sedan we found that General Dumourier had an order to take command of the army, though General Dillon was the oldest Lieutenant General, and he was obliged to accept of the command of the avant garde himself, if he accepted of any thing, which command he had promised me…”
* Arthur Dillon is as intriguing a figure as Money, perhaps more so. John Goldworth Alger provides an intersting profile summarized here: “Dillon served France as a military officer, an administrator, and member of the National Assembly for Martinique, who stopped attending meetings when the Assembly granted “freeborn negroes” in the colonies the right to vote. Dillon, an aristocrat, became friends with Camille Desmoulins. Dillon was critical of French military leaders and made a number of enemies. He was imprisoned in 1793 and executed alongside Lucille Desmoulins and others in April, 1794.” Englishmen in the French Revolution London: Ballantyne Press, 1889, (pp. 170-176).
* The History of the Campaign of 1792 Between the Armies of France under Generals Dumourier, Valence & and the Allies under the Duke of Brunswick with an Account of What Passed in the Thuilleries on the 10th of August. by J. Money, Marechel de Camp in the Service of Louis Sixteenth, London Printed for E. Harlow, Bookseller to Her Majesty, Pall Mall, 1794. (pp. 1-34)