[Transcriber's note: Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbersenclosed in curly braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where pagebreaks occurred in the original book, in accordance with ProjectGutenberg's FAQ-V-99. This has been done only in the book's mainchapters (I-XVII). For its Preface and itsIndex, page numbers have been placed only at the start of each ofthose two sections.]

[Frontispiece: 1. Voltaire. 2. Marie Antoinette on her way
to the guillotine. 3. Fouquier-Tinville. 4. Carrier.
5. Danton before the Tribunal Revolutionnaire.]

The French Revolution

A SHORT HISTORY

By
R. M. Johnston

M.A., CANTAB.
Assistant Professor of History in Harvard University

NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1910.

COPYRIGHT, 1909
BY
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

Published, May, 1909
Second Printing, January, 1910

TO
Rayner Neate
IN MEMORY OF OLD PEMBROKE DAYS

{v}

PREFACE

The object of this book is similar to thatwith which, a few years ago, I wrote a shortbiography of Napoleon. The main outlines ofthe Revolution, the proportion and relation ofthings, tend to become obscured under theaccumulation of historical detail that is nowproceeding. This is an attempt, therefore, todisentangle from the mass of details the shape,the movement, the significance of this greathistorical cataclysm. To keep the outlineclear I have deliberately avoided mentioningthe names of many subordinate actors;thinking that if nothing essential was connectedwith them the mention of their names wouldonly tend to confuse matters. Similarly withincidents, I have omitted a few, such as thetroubles at Avignon, and changed the emphasison others, judging freely their importance andnot following the footsteps of my predecessors,as in the case of the capture of the Bastille, theimportance of which was vastly exaggeratedby early writers on the subject.

The end of the Revolution I place atBrumaire,—as good a date as any, though like allothers, open to criticism. The present narrative,however, will be found to merge into thatof my Napoleon, which forms its naturalcontinuation after that date.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS., Feb., 1909.

CONTENTS