the Revolution; the revolutionary army, of which Ronsin had been the chief, was disbanded amidst general applause, (30th March), and a discussion had even taken place at the Jacobins, as to recommending the removal of the busts of Chalier and Marat from their hall.

"The

Robespierre and he had a meeting in the | the Convention, between the 26th and house of the former, but it led to no ac- 30th March, congratulating them on the commodation. Danton complained vio-execution of the men who had disgraced lently of the conduct of his former friend; Robespierre maintained a haughty reserve. "I know," said Danton, "all the hatred which the Committee bear me, but I do not fear it."- "You are wrong," said Robespierre, "they have no bad intentions against you; but it is well to be explicit. Not only do the 95. In truth, the Dantonists and friends Committee bear you no ill will, but they of humanity, overjoyed at the punishardently desire to strengthen their go- ment of Hébert and the extreme Anvernment by the principal leaders of archist leaders, gave full reins to their the Mountain. Should I be here if I intoxication, and imprudently spread desired your head? would I offer my the report through Paris that the reign hand if I thought of assassinating you? of blood was about to terminate. They Our enemies are sowing jealousies be- even went so far as to suggest that a twixt us: take care, Danton! In taking return should be at last made to more your friends for enemies, you may ob- humane principles. Collot d'Herbois lige them to become so. Let us see and the Jacobins sufficiently showed, can we not come to an understanding? however, that the Committee of Public Is it, or is it not, necessary for power Salvation had no intention of arresting to be terrible, when it would coerce the the march of the Revolution. wicked?" 66 Yes," said Danton; "with-counter-revolutionists," said he at their out doubt it is necessary to coerce the club, "announce by a thousand mouths Royalists; but we should not confound that the bust of Marat is about to be the innocent with the guilty."-" And disgraced, and replaced by that of the who has told you," said Robespierre, monster who assassinated him. The "that one innocent person has perish- aristocracy wish to profit by existing ed?" Danton, upon this, turning to the circumstances to attack the Revolufriend who accompanied him, said with tion, by uniting the purest to the opa bitter smile-"What say you? Not pressors, and assimilating the traitors one innocent has perished?" They who have just been punished to the parted mutually exasperated. All in- martyrs of liberty. They even go so tercourse between them immediately far as to propose that the Jacobins ceased. Robespierre, however, hesi- should go into their projects, and make tated much before taking the decisive all the supporters of the Revolution step of his arrest. "Ah!" said he, tremble. Already they have proscribed "that I had the lantern of the great Chalier; soon they will proscribe Marat philosopher, to read Danton's heart, too, and replace his bust by some other and know whether he really is a friend one, probably that of the tyrant. (Loud or enemy of the Republic." The ex- cries of indignation.) Open your eyes treme Jacobins were less scrupulous; to the dangers which surround you, they openly demanded Danton's head, and you will see that measures very "to take away a false god from the different from those proposed by the multitude, and restore the worship of Moderates are now called for governpure revolutionary virtue." These feel- ment will act differently. They have ings, however, were not general. Robes- caused the thunder to fall on the infapierre had sufficient evidence, during mous men who have deceived the peothe days that immediately followed the ple; they have torn from them the execution of the Anarchists, that terror masks which concealed their hideous had reached its extreme point, and that outrages; they will tear the mask from a return to humanity was at length others: let not the Moderates suppose ardently desired by the people. Innu- that it is for them that we have held merable addresses were presented to here our glorious sittings. I propose

that whoever casts a doubt on the martyr Chalier, should at once be declared a counter-revolutionist, and sent to the Revolutionary Tribunal."

he was our father; he cannot have
turned our assassin." * Danton, on en-
tering the prison, cordially welcomed
the captives who flocked to behold
him. " Gentlemen," said he, "I hoped
to have been the means of delivering
you all from this place; but here I am
among you, and God only knows where
this will end." He was immediately
afterwards shut up in a solitary cell,
the same which Hébert had recently
before occupied. On entering it he
exclaimed, "At last I perceive that in

rests with the most abandoned." + He
soon after said to Lacroix, who accom-
panied him, and expressed his sur-
prise that he had not endeavoured to
save himself, "Their cowardice misled
me: I was deceived by their baseness.
When men commit follies, it is well
to laugh at them." Soon after, ad-
dressing Camille Desmoulins, who in
despair, and weeping aloud, was dash-
ing his head against the wall of the
prison, he added, "What is the use of
these tears? When sent to the scaf-
fold, we should know how to ascend it
cheerfully." During the short period
that elapsed before his execution, his
mind, in a distracted state, reverted to
the innocence of his earlier
"He
years.
spoke incessantly," said his fellow cap-
tive Riouffe," of trees, flowers, and the
country." Then, giving way to una-
vailing regret, he exclaimed-"It was
just a year ago that I was the means
of instituting the Revolutionary Tribu-
nal: may God and man forgive me for
what I did! I hoped in so doing to
avert a second massacre in the prisons;
it was not that it might become the
scourge of humanity!'

96. Alarmed by these ominous words, the friends of Danton now conjured him to take steps to insure his own safety. "Danton," said Fabre d'Eglantine to him, "do you know of what you are accused? They say that you have only set in motion the car of the Revolution to enrich yourself, while Robespierre has remained poor in the midst of the treasures of the monarchy | revolutions the supreme power finally lying at his feet." "Well," replied | Danton, "Do you know what that proves ? It proves that I love gold, and Robespierre loves blood. He is afraid of money, lest it should stain his hands." But, though aware of the danger, no resource remained to ward off the threatened blow. The club of the Cordeliers, indeed, was devoted to him, and the Convention in secret leaned to his side; but these bodies had no real power; the armed force was entirely in the hands of the Committee of Public Salvation. Having failed in rousing public opinion by means of the journals of his party, and the exertions of his friends in the Convention, what other expedients remained? "I would rather," said he, "be guillotined than become guillotiner: my life is not worth the trouble of preserving; I am weary of existence. Set off into exile ! Do you suppose that one carries their country about with them on the sole of their shoe?" On the day before his arrest, he received notice that his imprisonment was under the consideration of the Committee, and he was again pressed to fly; but, after a moment's deliberation, he only answered, "They dare not!" In the night his house was surrounded, and he was arrested, along with Camille Desmoulins, Lacroix, Hérault de Séchelles, and Westermann. So little did Camille Desmoulins suspect the hand which had struck him, that he said to his wife when arrested, "I will fly to Robespierre: he was our guide, our "Enfin je vois que dans les révolutions friend, the confident of our first repub-RIOUFFE, p. 67. A memorable sentiment, l'autorité toujours reste aux plus scélérats." lican dreams. His hand united ours; coming from such lips.

VOL. III.

97. His arrest produced a violent agitation in Paris. The Convention on the following morning was shaken by a

* He had signed the marriage contract of Camille Desmoulins with Lucile, his young and charming wife. She wrote a long and sion, but it never reached him.-LAMARTINE, touching letter to Robespierre on the occaHistoire des Girondins, viii. 43.

D

a change of dynasty, felt the value of your audacity, and secured it: you abandoned all your former principles, and nothing more was heard of you till the massacre in the Champ de Mars. At every crisis you have deserted the public interest; you have ever attached yourself to the traitor party." The terror inspired by these words restored silence in the Convention; and at the same time, St Just, followed by the other members of the Committee of Public Salvation, entered the hall. With slow steps, a sombre and decided air, they approached the Tribune, when Robespierre again addressed Legendre. "Go on; it is well that all the associates of the conspirators we have arrested should at once make themselves known. You have heard of the despotism of the Committees, as if the confidence which the people have reposed in you, and which you have transferred to the Committees, was not the surest guarantee for their patriotism. You affect to be afraid; but I say, whoever trembles at this moment is guilty, for never did innocence fear the vigilance of the public authorities." Unanimous ap

general inquietude, which broke out in | have made yourself the slave of tyhalf-suppressed murmurs. "Citizens!" ranny. Mirabeau, who contemplated said Legendre, "four of the national representatives have been arrested during the night: Danton is one-I am ignorant of the others. Danton is as innocent as myself, and yet he is in irons. His accusers, without doubt, are afraid that his answers would demolish the charges brought against him; but you are bound to do justice; and I demand that, before the report of the committee is received, he be examined in your presence." The proposition was favourably received by some, and loudly hooted by others. Tallien, the president, gave it his energetic support. "I will maintain," said he, "the liberty of speech; let every one freely express his opinion. I remind his colleagues that we are here for the people, and concerned only with their interest. It is time to have done with individual disputes. Let the friends of the Revolution prove to-day their love for liberty. I will proclaim the decrees which have passed for the maintenance of liberty of speech." Loud applauses followed these words; and from the agitation which prevailed, there is no doubt that if Danton had been brought before them, his power-plause from hands shaking with fright ful voice would have broken the talis- followed these words. None ventured man of the Decemvirs, and closed the to incur the terrible imputation-terreign of blood. But Robespierre im- ror froze every heart; and St Just, mediately mounted the tribune. without opposition, ascended the Tribune.

98. "From the trouble, for long unknown," said he, "which reigns in the 99. He there made a detailed expoConvention, from the agitation pro-sition of the grounds of accusation duced by the words you have just against the Moderate party, recounted heard, it is evident that a great inter- their private irregularities, their unparest is at stake, and that the point now donable clemency; charged them with to be determined is, whether the safety being accomplices in every conspiracy, of a few individuals is to prevail over from that of the Royalists, whom they that of the country. We shall see this overthrew on the 10th August, to that day whether the Convention has cour of the Anarchists, whose treason had age to break a pretended idol, or to so recently been punished. "Citizens," suffer it in its fall to overwhelm the said St Just, "the Revolution is in the Assembly and the people of France. people, and not in the resources of a Danton! you shall answer to inflexible | few individuals. There is something terjustice: let us examine your conduct.rible in the love of country. It is so Accomplice in every criminal enter- exclusive that it sacrifices everything, prise, you ever espoused the cause which without pity, without remorse, to the was adverse to freedom: you intrigued public interest. It precipitated Manlius with Mirabeau and Dumourier, with from the Tarpeian rock, it drew ReguHébert, and Hérault de Séchelles ; you | lus back to Carthage, and put Marat in

tion, mastered by fear, crouched beneath their tyrants, and unanimously, amidst loud applause, sent the accused to the Revolutionary Tribunal. The galleries imitated their example. From those benches, whence had issued so often bursts of applause at their speeches, were now heard only fierce demands for their heads.

100. When removed to the Conciergerie, preparatory to their trial, the astonishment of the captives was as great as when they entered the Luxembourg. "My late brethren," said Danton, derstand nothing of government: I leave everything in the most deplor

un

poor fisherman than the ruler of men. My only comfort is, that my name is attached to some decrees which will show that I was not involved in all their fury." On their trial, which began on the 2d and continued to the 5th April, they evinced their wonted firmness, and addressed the judges in unusual terms of indignation. Danton, being interrogated by the president concerning his age and profession, replied

the Pantheon. Your committee, impressed with these sentiments, have charged me to demand justice, in the name of the country, against men who have long betrayed it. May this example be the last you are called on to give of your inflexibility. Danton! you have become the accomplice of tyranny. You have conspired with Mirabeau and Dumourier, with Hébert, with Hérault de Séchelles. Danton! you have been the slave of tyranny. You have, it is true, opposed Lafayette; but Mirabeau, d'Orléans, Dumourier, did the same. Can you deny that you were sold to the three greatest enemies liberty ever had? You got from Mirabeau the directionable confusion. 'Twere better to be a of the department of Paris. At first you showed a menacing front to the court; but Mirabeau, who knew the value of your aid, bought you over. You were never heard of more in the Assembly, but you were found supporting the motion of Laclos, the minion of d'Orléans, in the Jacobins, which was the pretext made by the court for unfurling the red flag in the Champ de Mars, and massacring the patriots. You joined Brissot in drawing up the petition of the Champ de Mars, and escaped the fury of Lafayette, who butchered two thousand patriots. After Mirabeau's death, you conspired with Lameth and his party you supported the Girondists in their suicidal efforts to plunge us into war. You became the associate of Guadet and Brissot: you spoke, on your return from Belgium, of the vices of Dumourier with as much admiration as the virtues of Cato. You held back from the revolution of 31st May, which overturned the Girondists. You have compared public opinion to a courtesan, who lavishes her favours on the most abandoned of mankind. These maxims were those of Catiline; they might well recommend you to the aristocracy. A bad citizen, you have conspired; a treacherous friend, you have betrayed. Justice demands the punishment of your double perfidy." The utter absurdity of imputing to Danton and his friends such contradictory crimes, and supposing them in league with their bitterest enemies, was too glaring to escape observation; but the Conven

"My name is Danton, sufficiently known in the history of the Revolution; I am thirty-five; my abode will soon be in nonentity; and my name will live in the pantheon of history." Camille Desmoulins answered-"I am of the same age as the Sans-culotte Jesus Christ, when he died." Danton spoke with energy and resolution in his own defence. "My voice," said he, with that powerful organ which had been so often raised in the cause of the people, "will have no difficulty in refuting the calumnies contained in the act of accusation. Let the cowards who accuse me be brought forward; I will speedily cover them with confusion. Let the Committees appear; I require them both as accusers and judges. Let them appear: they will not. It matters little what judgment you pronounce; I have already told you my abode will soon be in nonentity. My life is a burden; I am weary of it, and will rejoice in the stroke that sends me to the grave." The president rang his bell, but Danton's voice of thunder drowned the noise. "Do you not hear me?"

said the president. "The voice of a | time to bring the prosecution to a conman," replied Danton, "who defends clusion. The method adopted was the his honour and his life, may well over- same as that which had proved fatal to come your clamours. Individual auda- the Girondists-viz., the taking advancity may well be coerced; but national tage of his influence in the Convention, audacity, of which I have so often given which authorised the public accuser to proofs-that is necessary; it is permit- obtain at the moment a decree, authoted in revolutions. When I see myself rising the Revolutionary Tribunal to so grievously, so unjustly accused, I am declare hors des débats-in other words, no longer master of my indignation. to condemn, without further hearing— any accused party whom they deemed wanting in respect to the court. The austere indignation of Danton, the nerve of Desmoulins, the measured ability of Lacroix, rendered the judges apprehensive of a movement among the populace; to prevent which, the Convention, without hesitation, adopted the proposal. No sooner was this decree passed, than Amar hastened with it to the Tribunal, where Danton and his friends were prolonging their indignant defence. "Here are the means," said Amar, "for stifling these wretches." Fouquier Tinville, the public accuser, seized it with avidity, and read it to the court, demanding, at the same time, the instant condemnation of the accused. Danton rose and called the audience to witness that they had not been wanting in respect to the judges. "The time will come," said he, "when the truth will be known: I foresee the greatest calamities to France: here is the dictator unveiled." On the day following, the debates were closed before they had begun their defence, notwithstanding the most energetic remonstrance from Camille Desmoulins, who called the audience to witness that they were murdered. On the ground that the jury were now sufficiently enlightened, and that the third day of the trial had commenced, the public accuser refused to allow the witnesses whom Lacroix proposed to call to be examined, on the ground that, being members of the Con

101. "Is it for a revolutionist such as me, so strongly pronounced, so irrecoverably implicated, to defend myself against such charges as are now brought against me? Me sold to the court!-me the accomplice of Mirabeau, of d'Orléans, of Dumourier! Does not all the world know that I combated Mirabeau, thwarted all his plans, defeated all his attempts against liberty? You, St Just, shall answer to posterity for such declamations, directed against the best friend of the people-against the most ardent defender of liberty. In looking over this list of horror, I feel my very soul shudder." "Marat," interrupted the court, 66 was reduced to defend himself; but he did so without calumniating his accuser." "Have I not," resumed Danton, "done more in behalf of freedom than could be expected from any citizen? Did I not show myself, when they wished to withdraw the tyrant, by removing him to St Cloud? Have I not placarded, in the district of the Cordeliers, invitations to insurrection? Let my accusers appear, and I will plunge them into the obscurity from which they never should have been dragged. Vile impostors, appear! I will soon tear from you the mask which shields you from the public indignation. It is truly an astonishing thing the long blindness of the National Convention till this day on my conduct, and their sudden illumination!" 102. After continuing in this manner for three days, during which his voice was sometimes so loud that it was heard across the Seine on the Quai de la Ferraille,* Robespierre deemed it high

"The windows of the Tribunal were open, and Danton occasionally stretched his voice to such a pitch that his accents sounded across the Seine to the curious crowd gathered on the Quai de la Ferraille."(The trial was in the Palais de Justice.)-Hist. Parl. xxii. 164.