against the inbreaking tyranny
fell. All the good lamented their fall, while the evil-disposed
rejoiced. On their ruin the revolutionary government was formed.
Robespierre, who directed all acts in the committee of public safety,
became dictator, while his associates divided the departments among
themselves, and the superintendence of the police was vested in a
committee of general safety, possessed of formidable authority. One
of the first results of this new order of things was a change in the
divisions of the year, and the names of the months and of the days,
which republican calendar soon led to the abolition of public worship.
One of the prime leaders of this new movement was Marat, who did not
long enjoy his triumph over the Girondists. He was assassinated by a
young Norman girl, named Charlotte Corday, who fancied that by cutting
him off she could destroy his party.

The tyranny displayed in the capital, and the appearance of some of
the proscribed Girondist deputies, stirred up the spirit of war in
the provinces. The people of Normandy at once declared against the
anarchists, and raised an army which, under General Wimpfen, pushed
forward to Evreux, within a day's journey of Paris. The victorious
insurgents of La Vendee also marched upon Nantes, in order to procure
themselves a stronghold and a sea-port. Moreover, Bordeaux, indignant
at the arrest of the deputies, despatched a remonstrance to Paris, and
began to levy an army to second it; and Toulouse, Lyons, and Marseilles
all arrayed themselves against the Jacobins. Their fall seemed
inevitable, and they themselves anticipated such a consummation.
Rendered desperate, thereby, they prepared to ward off the blow. In a
brief period the republicans had on foot fourteen armies, consisting in
the whole of 1,200,000 soldiers and the whole of the hostile provinces
cowered before their arms.

In the meantime several engagements had taken place between the
republican forces of France and those of the allied powers. After
succeeding to the command, General Dampierre threw himself into the
fortified camp of Famars, which covered Valenciennes, He made some
attempts to cover Conde also, but that important fortress was securely
invested by a part of the Austrian army; and the Duke of York soon after
arriving with some English troops, it was resolved to make a vigorous
attack along all that part of the French frontier, and to reduce
Valenciennes, Conde, and Lisle. The supre