Revolution quickly followed, greatly advancing its cause.

After the fall of the Bastille (July 14, 1789), the National
Assembly abolished special privileges, slavery, and serfdom
in France and all her territories, and decreed equal
taxation. A new constitution was made. These acts heightened
popular enthusiasm for the revolt. Political clubs, chief of
which was that of the Jacobins, were formed in Paris. They
were fiercely uncompromising in their demand for the
overthrow of the monarchy. Many of the nobles hastened to
quit the country. The King was virtually made prisoner in
Paris, whence he attempted to escape, but was captured by
insurgents and closely guarded in the city.

The National Assembly came to an end and was succeeded
(October 1, 1791) by the Legislative Assembly, a still more
radical body, which for a year practically ruled France over
the head of the King.

Such was the state of affairs in France when,
notwithstanding the complications in the East, the Emperor
Leopold II and King Frederick William II of Prussia issued
the Convention of Pillnitz (August, 1791). This was the
basis of an alliance for the rescue of Louis XVI from his
enemies, and for his full restoration to power. It led a
little later to a formidable coalition of sovereigns against
the Revolution. Brunswick advanced toward Paris, but while
he hesitated in his progress the French army, under
Dumouriez, was increased in numbers and discipline.
Dumouriez was on the Belgian border, preparing for his
"Argonne campaign," the first events of which no one has
better described than Lamartine.

While the interregnum of royalty and republicanism delivered Paris over
to the revolutionists, France, with all its frontiers open, had for
security nothing but the small forest of Argonnes and the genius of
Dumouriez. On September 2, 1792, this general was shut up with sixteen
thousand men in the camp of Grandpre, occupying with weak detachments
the intermediate defiles between Sedan and Sainte-Menehould, by which
the Duke of Brunswick might attempt to break his line and turn his
position. He caused the tocsin to be rung in the villages, hoping to
excite the enthusiasm of the inhabitants; but the captures of Longwi and
Verdun, the understanding between the gentlemen of the country and the
_emigres_,[36] the hatre