Valazé’s daughter recollecting Girondins as she remembered them in her childhood
Vatel, working on his “Charlotte de Corday et les Girondins”, was looking for someone who could evaluate the reliability of portraits of Barbaroux. Madame Letellier-Valazé offered her help. She was then eighty-one years old. In 1793 she was eight. She not only gave her opinion on various portraits but also shared some memories she still possessed.
“My father lived on Rue d’Orléans Saint-Honoré, 19. Every day several colleagues of him gathered in his house. I remember that Guadet, Gensonné and Barbaroux used to come most often. Sometimes came Louvet, as well as Pétion and Gorsas*.
Guadet leaned his head a bit to the shoulder.
Gensonné seemed to be the oldest. He had very thick hair.
Barbaroux was beautiful, excessively beautiful, superb. His colleagues liked to joke about this beauty. He was very lively, very joyful, very good. He loved to play with me, he took me into the living room, where his colleagues met and sat me on his lap if my father wanted to send me away.
He was very dark, with black hair, large eyes also black and very beautiful, very bright. He had well-defined lips, beautiful teeth, fine, delicate features, brown complexion, his beard was so black that if he had just shaved, his cheeks were blue. He was strong.
Madame Roland didn’t come to the meetings, but once she was forced to hide and did so at ours. It had a great effect on the house. I can still hear her walking in the living room and talking, rising her hands in the air.
Madame Pétion came almost every evening with her daughter, who was a charming young person.
Louvet sometimes brought his wife, but she never took part in political discussions.
Madame Roland spent with us only those tree days.
Louvet had a pretty face, an effeminate one, with which he painted himself.”
* – Valazé during his interrogation named Lacaze, Bergoin, Duprat, Buzot, Barbaroux, Sage, Brissot, Gensonné, Guadet, Molleveau, Hardy, Duperret, Salle, Chambon, Lidon and others (Vatel).
Vatel, Charlotte de Corday et les Girondins, Vol. 2, p. 399-402
The thought deserves a better bost, but i'm too melancholy now to prevent myself from scetching it. The description above makes me wonder how much a "found family" conception fits Girondins. A very extended family actualy, in which its members not necessarily know each other well or like each other, but still inevitably connected. Aulard once wrote about Vergniaud-Ducos-Fonfrede relationship "Vergniaud is a family" and it's the best description I've ever found. What makes girondin a girondin is a good question. A good answer is that there were no girondins (sorry Aulard, i'm oversimplifing you here), but I don't like it. And something enchanting exists in that very salons at Valazé's or Pétion's.
Avilir le corps législatif ! quelle chétive idée vous étiez-vous donc formée de sa dignité ? [...] Si des membres d'une assemblée auguste, oubliant leur existence comme représentans d'un grand peuple, pour ne se souvenir que de leur mince existence comme individus, sacrifioient les grands intérêts de l'humanité à leur méprisable orgueil, ou à leur lâche ambition, ils ne parviendroient pas même, par cet excès de bassesse, à avilir la représentation nationale ; il ne réussiroient qu'à s'avilir eux-mêmes.
Réponse de Maximilien Robespierre à l’accusation de J.-B. Louvet, 5 novembre 1792 (OMR, t. VIII, p. 95).
Acte d'Accusation against several Members of the National Convention, presented in the name of the Committee of General Security, by André Amar, member of this committee, On the 13th day of the first month of Year II of the French Republic, & in the old manner on 3 October. […]
There is a conspiracy against the unity and indivisibility of the Republic, against the liberty & security of the French people. Among the authors & accomplices of this conspiracy, are Brissot, Gensonné, Vergniaud, Guadet, Grangeneuve, Pétion, Gorsas, Biroleau, Louvet, Valazé, Valady, Fauchet, Carra, Isnard, Duchâtel, Barbaroux, Sales, Buzot, Sillery, Ducos, Fonfrède, Le Hardi, Lanjuinais, Fermont, Rouyer, Kersaint, Manuel, Vigier & others. The proof of their crimes results from the following facts. […]
You can find Amar’s full report on the indictment of the Girondins in the Archives Parlementaires, tome 75, p. 522ff.
„I've rushed to Pétion, where some of my friends gathered to find them peacefully discussing the decrees to be enacted weeks later. God knows what effort it took from me to release them from that safety! Finally I achieved that none of them would go to the already started session and that we would meet an hour after in a house where conspirators couldn't guess our presence.
Then I went promptly to the session. There I found Kervelégan, a deputy from Finistère. That brave man ran to the Faubourg Marceau to warn a Breton bataillon, which, fortunately, had been standing in Paris for several days. The bataillon remained under arms all night, ready to march to our aids at first request or ringing of a tocsin.
I was moving from one door to another, warning Valazé, Buzot, Barbaroux, Salles and many others. Brissot had gone to warn the ministers. The minister of war, brave and unfortunate Beurnonville had climbed over his garden fence and joined some friends of him in their patrol. After two hours of running in the dark night amidst my, so to say, assassins I returned to the place we had appointed. Pétion was absent. He would have placed himself in a great danger if he had stayed at home.
I'd returned for him, and his answer will paint him well. While I was urging him to follow me, he came to the window and opened it. Then, looking at the sky, he said: „It's raining. Nothing will happen.“ No matter what I said, he persisted in staying.“
From Memoires de Louvet de Couvray, 1823 ed., p.73-74
