[Footnote 11:  Pepin and Charlemagne were, properly speaking, simply German princes reigning in Gaul.  The kingdom of France is usually dated from the accession of the first of the Capetian kings, late in the tenth century, 987.  However, the Frankish nation, of whom the Carlovingian kings were leaders, laid the foundation of the French kingdom and gave a new name to Gaul—­France.]

This revolution commenced on the fifth of May, 1789, in the Convocation of the States General, for the redress of grievances and the extrication of the government and nation from the difficulties under which they were laboring.  A conflict had been going on between despotism and popular rights, the throne and nobility contending for absolute power, and the people, for freedom.  But when in this encounter the popular party triumphed, there was no fear of God before the eyes of those who seized the reins of government.  The infidelity of Voltaire and his associates had removed the last restraint upon human passion, and the scenes of terror that followed are without a parallel in history.  The king was condemned to death and executed.  The barbarous execution of the queen, Marie Antoinette, followed in about six months, and this was immediately succeeded by the decree of the National Convention, of the most infamous character, that of the violation of the tombs of St. Dennis and the profanation of the sepulchres of the kings of France.  I will quote from Sir A. Alison’s noted History of Europe: 

“By a decree of the Convention, these venerable asylums of departed greatness were ordered to be destroyed....  A furious multitude precipitated itself out of Paris; the tombs of Henry IV., of Francis I., and of Louis XII., were ransacked, and their bones scattered in the air.  Even the glorious name of Turenne could not protect his grave from spoilation.  His remains were almost undecayed, as when he received the fatal wound on the banks of the Lech.  The bones of Charles V., the savior of his country, were dispersed.  At his feet was found the coffin of the faithful Du Gueselin, and the French hands profaned the skeleton before which English invasion had rolled back.  Most of these tombs were found to be strongly secured.  Much time, and no small exertion of skill and labor, were required to burst their barriers.  They would have resisted forever the decay of time or the violence of enemies; they yielded to the fury of domestic dissension.  This was followed immediately by a general attack upon the monuments and remains of antiquity throughout all France.  The sepulchres of the great of past ages, of the barons and generals of the feudal ages, of the paladins, and of the crusaders, were involved in one undistinguished ruin.  It seemed as if the glories of antiquity were forgotten, or sought to be buried in oblivion.  The tomb of Du Gueselin shared the same fate as that of Louis XIV.  The skulls of monarchs and heroes were tossed about like foot balls by the profane multitude; like the grave-diggers in Hamlet, they made a jest of the lips before which the nations had trembled.”