sixty to be tried at once; and he pro- | from their frequency, but their near posed to place at the bar the whole approach to themselves. Their reason prisoners charged with the conspiracy was at length awakened by the revoluin the Luxembourg at one sitting. He tionary fever having exhausted itself; even went so far as to erect a guillotine humanity began to react against the in the court-room, in order to execute ceaseless effusion of human blood, after the prisoners the moment the sentence all their enemies had been destroyed. was pronounced; but Collot d'Herbois It was impossible that pity should not objected to this, as tending "to de- at length be awakened in the breast of moralise punishment." A guillotine the spectators, for never had such had been prepared, however, with four scenes of woe been exhibited to the blades placed crosswise, which could public gaze. "The funeral cars," says behead four prisoners at once. the republican historian, Lamartine, "often held together the husband, wife, and all their children. Their implor each other with the tender expression of a last look, the heads of daughters falling on the knees of their mothers, of wives on the shoulders of their husbands, the pressure of heart against heart, both of which were so soon to cease to beat-now grey hairs and auburn locks cut by the same scissors, now wrinkled heads and charming visages falling under the same axe; the slow march of the cortège, the monotonous rolling of the wheels, the hedge of sabres around the procession, the stifled sobs of the victims, the hisses of the populace, the cries of the furies of the guillotine-all impressed a mournful character on these assassinations, which seemed to be provided for no other purpose but to serve for the pastime of the people." 55. But there is a limit to human suffering-an hour when indignant na-ing visages, which mutually regarded ture will no longer submit, and courage arises out of despair. That avenging hour was fast approaching. The lengthened files of prisoners daily led to the scaffold had long excited the commiseration of the better classes in Paris; the shops in the Rue St Honoré were shut, and its pavement deserted, when the melancholy procession, moving towards the Place de la Révolution, passed along. Alarmed at these signs of dissatisfaction, the Committee changed, as already mentioned, the place of execution, and fixed it first on the Place St Antoine, and soon after at the Bar rière du Trône, in the Faubourg St Antoine. But even the workmen of that revolutionary district ere long manifested impatience at the constant repetition of the dismal spectacle. The middle classes, who constituted the strength of the national guard in Paris, began to be alarmed at the rapid progress and evident descent of the proscriptions. At first the nobles and ecclesiastics only were included: by degrees the whole landed proprietors were reached; but now the work of destruction seemed to be fast approaching every class above the lowest. On the lists of the Revolutionary Tribunal, in the latter days of the Reign of Terror, are to be found tailors, shoemakers, hair-ed as a means of attaining that object. dressers, butchers, farmers, mechanics, and workmen, accused of anti-revolutionary principles. From the 10th June to the 17th July, that court had sentenced twelve hundred and eightyfive persons to death. The people felt pity for these proscriptions, not only 56. A considerable party in the Convention eagerly embraced the same sentiments: their conspicuous situation rendered it probable that they would be among the first victims; and every one, in the hope of saving his own life, ardently prayed for the downfall of the tyrants. It was well known in that Assembly that Robespierre had let fall some expressions, indicating an intention to destroy many of its members; and the law of 22d Prairial was regard The Committee of Public Salvation was "Let us Revolutionary Tribunal," exclaimed of the immeasurable malice of the Billaud Varennes, "thinks it has made priests, partly of the formidable faction a great effort when it strikes off seventy which the popular axe had destroyed!" heads a-day; but the people are easily It turned the fanatics into derision, habituated to what they always behold: but at the same time denounced them to inspire terror, we must double the as worthy of death; and they were acnumber." "How timid you are in the cordingly thrown into prison. The capital!" said Collot d'Herbois; can opponents of Robespierre, in the Comyour ears not stand the sound of artil-mittee and Convention, eagerly seized lery? It is a proof of weakness to exe- hold of this circumstance to connect cute your enemies one after another; his name with the remnants of former you should mow them at once down superstition, and expose it to that most with cannon." The judges of the Re- formidable of all assaults in France, the volutionary Tribunal, many of whom assault of ridicule. Robespierre strove caine from the galleys of Toulon, la- to save these fanatics, but his colleagues boured incessantly at the work of ex- withstood his influence: irritated, he termination, and mingled indecent ri- retired from their meetings, from which baldry and jests with their unrelenting he was absent for the next six weeks, cruelty to the crowds of captives who and confined himself to the club of the were brought before them. An old Jacobins, where his power was still preman, who had lost the use of speech dominant. by a paralytic affection, being placed at the bar, the president exclaimed, "No matter; it is not his tongue, but his head, that we want." 58. Naturally suspicious, the apprehensions of the tyrant now increased to the highest degree. He had become not less fearful of his colleagues than of his enemies. His house was guarded by a body of Jacobins, armed with pistols, chiefly composed of jurymen from the Revolutionary Tribunal. He seldom went out unattended by this obnoxious band. His table was covered with letters, in which he was styled the "Envoy of God," the "New Messiah," the "New Orpheus." On every side his likeness was to be seen in marble, with thy writings, who strikest terror into "Thou who enlightenest the universe tyrants and strengthenest the hearts of the people, thou fillest the world with thy renown; thy principles are those of nature, thy landignity of mankind; a second creator, thou guage that of humanity; thou restorest the regeneratist the human race in this world.J. P. BESSOR."-Papiers trouvés chez Robes 57. The superstition or vanity of Robespierre furnished the first pretext for a combination to shake his power. The members of the different committees, alarmed for their own safety, were secretly endeavouring to undermine his influence, when the fanaticism of an old woman, named Catherine Théot, gave them the means of extending their apprehensions to a larger circle. She proclaimed herself the mother of God, and announced the approaching arrival of a regenerating Messiah. An ancient ally of Robespierre, Dom Gerle, was the associate of her frenzy; they held nocturnal orgies, in which Robespierre was invoked as the Supreme Pontiff. The Committee of Public Salvation, who were acquainted with all their proceed-pierre, ii. 116. ings, and from the majority of whom Robespierre was now almost entirely estranged, beheld, or feigned to behold, in these extravagances, a design to make him the head of a new religion, which might add to the force of political power the weight of spiritual fervour. Vadier was intrusted by the Committee with the duty of investigating the mysteries: his report, which was read amidst loud laughter in the Convention, represented the "conspiracy as the result partly Blessed be Robespierre, the worthy imitator of Brutus. All confide in your incorruptible zeal. The crown, the triumph, are due to you, and they will be yours, while shall raise to you, and which posterity will applauding citizens bow before the altar we revere as long as men know the value of liberty."-Ibid. ii. 118. "Your task is written in the book of destiny; it will be worthy of your great soul." Ibid. ii. 119. "Nature has just presented me with a son; I have ventured to make him bear the weight of your name. * ** I said to myselfRobespierre has ever been, and will by future ages be, regarded as the corner-stone in the * bronze, or canvass, and below each, | step in the despair of nations. Founded lines in which the Jacobinical poets ex- as a barrier against tyranny, it soon betolled him above Cato and Aristides. comes the greatest tyranny itself. It In the bed of Catherine there was saves a day to ruin an age. Rather let found a letter addressed to Robespierre, the day perish, and the future be prein which he was styled "the Son of the served; let the people be misled, be Supreme Being," "the Eternal Word," injured, even ruined, rather than sub"the Redeemer of the Human Race," | jected to that humiliating guardianship "the Messiah designated by the Pro- which, under pretence of saving, in fact phets." Old women wrote to him in enslaves them. Nations have their the strain of the Song of Simeon, re- childhood, their maturity, their old age joicing they had lived to see the advent-you must watch over the childhood, of the day of salvation. Children over the whole Republic were called after his name; the admiration with which he was surrounded approached to idolatry. But all his efforts, and all the adulation of his satellites, could not dispel the terrors which had seized his mind. In his desk, after his death, was found a letter in the following terms: "You yet live! assassin of your country, stained with the purest blood of France. I wait only the time when the people shall strike the hour of your fall. Should my hope prove vain, this hand which now writes thy sentence, this hand which thy bewildered eye seeks in vain, this hand which presses thine with horror, shall pierce thee to the heart. Every day I am with thee; every hour my uplifted arm is ready to cut short thy life. Vilest of men! live yet a few days to be tortured by the fear of my vengeance; sleep to dream of me; let my image and thy fear be the first prelude of thy punishment. This very night, in seeing thee, I shall enjoy thy terrors: but thy eyes shall seek in vain my avenging form." 59. His violent partisans strongly urged the immediate adoption of the most vigorous measures. They earnestly pressed him to assume the dictatorship, now that the municipality and the majority of the Convention were at his feet, and Danton and Hébert were no more. But he constantly refused, alleging that the unity required was in the institutions, not the individuals intrusted with the government. “A dictatorship,” said he, "is the last structure of our constitution. May it please God that you confide to none other than yourself the carrying out of your plans."Papiers trouvés chez Robespierre, ii. 125, 126. but not bury it. Unity is necessary to * "Le Roi est mort: Vive le Roi." The same necessity of unity in power, and unall governments, monarchical or democratic. broken succession in that power, is felt by The only difference is, that the former admits hereditary succession, the latter contends for rotation of office. "Warn the citizens of France that an infamous death awaits all who oppose the Revolutionary Government. Let those drawing 60. In a meeting of the Jacobins, held on the 3d Thermidor (21st July), he prepared the minds of the audience for a revolt against the Convention. "The Assembly," said he, "labouring under the gangrene of corruption, and unable to throw off its impurities, is incapable the proscription of the patriots is the order of the day. For myself, I have one foot in the grave; in a few days I shall place the other in it: the result is in the hands of Providence. You see between what shoals we are compelled to steer; but we shall avoid shipwreck. Generally speaking, the Convention is pure it is above fear as above crime. It has nothing in common with a knot of conspirators. For my own part, happen what may, I declare to the counterrevolutionists, who seek their own safety in the ruin of their country, that, despite all intrigues directed against me, I will continue to unmask the traitors, and to succour the oppressed." The Jacobins were by these and similar addresses prepared for a revolutionary movement; but the secret of the insur rection, which was fixed for the 9th Thermidor, was confided only to Henriot and the mayor of Paris. the refractory deputies, obtain great victories in the interior-bring forward a report which may strike at once against all the disaffected. Pass salutary decrees to restrain the journals; render all the public functionaries responsible to you alone; let them be incessantly occupied in centralising pub-of saving the Republic: both will perish; lic opinion: hitherto your efforts have been confined to the centralising of the physical government. I repeat it: you require a vast report, which may embrace at once all the conspirators. Blend them altogether the Dantonists, the Royalists, the Orléanists, the Hébertists, the Lafayettists, the Bourdonists. Commence the great work." They had already marked out Tallien, Bourdon de l'Oise, Thuriot, Rovère, Lécointre, Panis, Monestier, Légendre, Fréron, Barras, and Cambon, as the first victims. But the conspirators had no armed force at their command: the club of the Jacobins, which they wielded at pleasure, was only powerful from its weight on public opinion; the committees of government were all arrayed on the other side. Robespierre, therefore, was compelled to commence the attack in the Convention: he expected to sway them by the terror of his voice; or if, contrary to all former precedent, they held out, his reliance was on the municipality, and an insurrection of the people, similar to that which had been so successful on the 31st May. By their aid he hoped to effect the proscription of his opponents in the Committee of Public Salvation, and their associates in the Mountain, as he had formerly done that of the Girondists, and of the Commission of Twelve; and measures were in preparation at the Hotel de Ville, for carrying these intentions into effect.* up reports make salutary suggestions; and let the Committee of Public Safety acquire more confidence, more importance, and more authority. Augment, augment the weight of the central power, to enable it to crush with ease all the conspirators. You could not select a more opportune moment for destroying all conspirators."-PAYAN to ROBESPIERRE, 9 Messidor, Ann. 2. Papiers trouvés chez Robespierre, ii. 359, 364. * "Decree: Council-General of the commune of Paris, 9th Thermidor-Collot d'Herbois, Amar, Leonard Bourdon, Fréron, Tal 61. The leaders of the Convention and of the committees, on their side, were not idle. The immediate pressure of danger had united all parties against Robespierre. He made no secret, in the popular society, of his resolution to decimate the Convention. At leaving one of the meetings where his designs had been openly expressed, Barère exclaimed, "That Robespierre is insatiable; because we won't do everything he wishes, he threatens to break with If he speaks of Thuriot, Guffroi, Rovère, and all the party of Danton, we us. lien, Panis, Carnot, Dubois Crancé, Vadier, Javoignes, Fouché, Granet, and Moïse Bayle, shall be arrested, that the Convention may be freed from the oppression under which they hold it. A civic crown is offered to the noble citizens who shall arrest these enemies of the people. The same men who overthrew the tyrant, and the faction of Brissot, will destroy all these scoundrels, who, by imprisoning some of our best patriots, have dared more than Louis XVI."-Pièce Inédite trouvée chez Robespierre; Histoire Parlementaire, xxxiii, 356. understand him; even should he demand Tallien, Bourdon de l'Oise, Légendre, Fréron, we may consent in good time; but to ask Duval, Audoin, Leonard Bourdon, Vadier, Vouland, is out of the question. To proscribe members of the Committee of General Safety, is to put the poniard to all our throats." Impressed with these feelings, they resolved to stand on their guard; though they did not as yet venture to commence an attack on Robespierre, whose name was terrible, and his influence still so much the object of dread. They were indefatigable in their endeavours to discredit him with the public, and held meetings every night to concert measures for their common defence. These meetings were held sometimes at the house of Barras, sometimes at those of Tallien, Rovère, Bourdon de l'Oise, or other persons threatened. The extraordinary, the profound mystery in which the proceedings of Robespierre were kept, the scaffold ready to cut them off, gave these meetings all the character of a dark conspiracy. Robespierre had information that a conspiracy was hatching against his authority, and the police furnished him daily with notes on the proceedings of the conspirators; but with such circumspection did they act, that no distinct clue to their designs was obtained. Tallien was the leader of the party-an intrepid man, and an old supporter of the revolutionary tyranny, but who had been awakened, during his sanguinary mission to Bordeaux, to better feelings, by the influence of his beautiful mistress already mentioned, afterwards well known as Madame Tallien, of extraordinary attractions, and more than masculine firmness of character. of public opinion, which daily called loudly for a stop to the carnage, Robespierre began at length to see the necessity of arresting the terrible effusion of blood, which had doubled in Paris since he had ceased to attend the Committee of Public Salvation. He meditated the destruction of Collot d'Herbois, Barère, and Billaud Varennes, as well as nearly all the members of the Committee of General Safety. He was at length awakened to the hopelessness of going on destroying till every Royalist, intriguer, Dantonist, or guilty functionary, was no more; he became alive to the dreadful nature of the system of government when it had ceased to be immediately directed by himself, and threatened a dangerous reaction. His private letters to his brother, during the six weeks which preceded his fall, deplored the system which was going forward, and its fatal effect in alienating, by the horror it excited, the supporters of the Revolution. He was seldom, between the 15th June and the 24th July, to be seen at the Convention; but his speeches at the Jacobin club loudly condemned the cruel measures of the committees, professed a disposition to return at last to a more moderate system of government, and openly announced the necessity of destroying the tyrants who were oppressing innocence throughout France.* He had *This appears more particularly in the debate at the Jacobins on 11th July (23 Messidor) 1794, of which a very imperfect report is preserved. Robespierre then said: The object of the speaker is to stop the effusion of human blood shed by crime. The sole desire, on the contrary, of the authors of these conspiracies is to slay all patriots, and above all, to destroy the Convention, since the Com mittee has indicated the views from which it must be cleansed. pointed out the errors of crime, and defended Who have unremittingly the betrayed patriots? Is it not the members of the Committee? Those who demand justice can be objects of terror to the chiefs of the factions alone; and those who wish to destroy the members of the Committee in public opinion can only design to serve the projects of the tyrants interested in the fall of a committee which denounces, and will speedily annihilate them."-Journal de la Montagne, 24 Messidor, 1794, No. 77, vol. v. p. 25. 62. Meanwhile the leaders of the opposite parties, who now divided equally the committees and the Convention, were diverging from each other as much in the measures which were severally advocated, as in the preparations they were making for mutual hostility. Alienated from his colleagues in the committees, disgusted with the universal turpitude and corruption with which Napoleon was of opinion that the character government was surrounded, and seri- of Robespierre had been too severely handled by subsequent writers. "He was of opinously alarmed at the growing influence | ion," says Las Cases, "that Robespierre had |