Galic Perfidy, or the National Troops Attachment to their General after their Defeat at Tournay (caricature)

This hand-coloured prints depicts the brutal murder of maréchal du camp Théobald Dillon, pictured at the centre. He reaches up and cries, ‘oh le Pauvre Dillon’ (oh the poor Dillon) as his subordinates attack him with their bayonetted rifles from all angles. A French Royal Army officer, he led an invasion into Austria. He headed towards Tournai as a decoy, but when he encountered Austrian troops in Marquain, he realised his troops would fail and followed orders to retreat. Now known as the Battle of Marquain, 1792, the Austrians attacked, sending the retreating French troops into chaos. While trying to rally his troops, Dillon was wounded by a shot from his own side. His squadron had been unruly and was made up of many untrained volunteers. They believed Dillon was part of a conspiracy, calling him a traitor and aristocrat. He was later shot and bayonetted in a cart, where he was taken through the streets to Lille.

An officer in the bottom left says, as he takes a jab at Dillon, ‘oh by Gar dis will be de brave news for de new association in England’. Likely referring to the ‘Society of the Friends of the People’, formulated a month before this caricature, or the London Corresponding Society which had formed in January. Groups were forming across Britain as a direct result of the revolution in France and the desire for a democratic revolution in British parliament.

On the left and right, soldiers shout ‘Ça ira!’ (That’ll do), while another on the right cries, ‘Encore Encore’ (Again, again).

On this impression, the title is translated into French in a handwritten note directly underneath.