* even gone so far as to frame a ministry, | days before the fall of Robespierre, the to be formed after he had destroyed his Committee of Public Salvation, "to enemies in the committees. Hermann judge more quickly the enemies of the was to be intrusted with the home ad- people, in detention over the whole Reministration; Payan and Julien with public," had agreed to a decree appointpublic instruction; Buchot or Fourcède ing four popular commissions, to try with foreign affairs; d'Albarade with without juries the whole prisoners in the marine; and Henriot was to be the different jails in the departments." mayor of Paris. The name of Robespierre is not affixed to this resolution; but it was entirely in conformity with a plan which Payan, his intimate friend, proposed to him, in order to dispose of nine thousand prisoners at Orange, who were summarily judged by a commission sent down from Paris, which destroyed them with unheard-of rapidity.+ And from a manu 63. During Robespierre's secession from the Committee of Public Salvation, however, that terrible body had lost none of its fearful and bloodthirsty energy. The daily executions in the capital had doubled, and now sometimes rose as high as seventy or eighty in a day; and on the 6th Thermidor, three neither talent, nor force, nor system; that he was the true emissary of the Revolution, who was sacrificed the moment that he strove to arrest it in its course-the fate of all those who before himself had engaged in the attempt; but that he was by no means the monster that was commonly believed." "Robespierre," said he, "was at last desirous to stop the public executions. He had not been at the committees for six weeks before his fall; and in his letters to his brother, who was attached to the army at Nice-letters which I myself saw-he deplored the atrocities which were going forward, as ruining the Revolution by the pity which they excited. Cambacérès, who is to be regarded as an authority for that epoch, said to me, in relation to the condemnation of Robespierre, 'Sire, that was a case in which judgment was pronounced without hearing the accused.' ('Un procès jugé, mais non plaidé.') You may add to that, that his intentions were different from what is generally supposed. He had a plan, after having overturned the furious factions whom he required to combat, to have returned to a system of order and moderation." "Some time before his fall," said Cambacérès, "he pronounced a discourse on that subject, full of the greatest beauties: it was not permitted to be inserted in the Moniteur, and all traces of it have, in consequence, been lost."-LAS CASES, i. 366. This is the one already referred to, pronounced at the Jacobins, 23 Messidor (11th July) 1794, Journal de la Montagne, v. 25, No. 77. Levasseur de la Sarthe also strenuously supports the same opinion, maintaining that Robespierre was cut off just at the moment when he was preparing to return to a system of humanity and beneficence. "What think you of Robespierre?" said some one to Levasseur at Brussels, in his old age. "Robespierre!" answered he, "do not mention his name; it is all I regret the Mountain was under a cloud when it sacrificed him." Vadier, an exile, and ninety years of age, was of the same opinion. "I am ninetytwo," said he in his old age; "the force of my opinion is daily increasing. There is but one act of my life which I regret, and that is having misunderstood Robespierre, and taken a citizen for a tyrant."-LEVASSEUR, iv. 110, 111. If this be true, it only augments the weight of the moral lesson to be derived from their history-that, even by such men, a return to order and justice was found to be indispensable, but that even to them the attempt at such a return was fatal.-LAMARTINE, Hist. des Girondins, viii. 241. *"The Committees of Public Safety and of General Security decree "1. In three days citizens shall be appointed to fulfil the duties of the four popular commissions created by the decree of the 13th Ventose. "2. They shall sit in judgment upon all those arrested in the prisons of the departments. "3. Their sittings shall be at Paris. "4. The judgments of these commissions shall be revised by the Committees of Public Safety and General Security. "5. A district comprising several departments shall be assigned to each commission. (Signed) B. Barère, Dubarran, C. A. Prieur, Louis du Bas Rhin, Lavicomterie, Collot d'Herbois, Carnot, Couthon, R. Lindet, Saint Just, Billaud Varennes, Vouland, Vadier, Amar, M. Bayle."-Histoire Parlementaire, xxxiii. 395. "From nine to ten thousand persons to be tried at Orange; the impossibility of conveying them to Paris. It is proposed, 1. To appoint a Revolutionary Tribunal to sit at Orange, for the purpose of judging the antirevolutionists of the departments of Vaucluse and the Mouths of the Rhone. 2. To com pose this tribunal of a public accuser and six judges. 3. Its power shall be divided into two sections. 4. It shall judge upon revolutionary principles, without written instructions, and without the intervention of a jury." This Tribunal accordingly was instituted, and the president in a few days wrote to Payan-"In the first six days of our operation we have done more than the Revolutionary Tribunal of Nîmes in a month; we have given a hundred and ninety-seven judgments in eighteen days."-Deux Amis, xii. 344, 345, and Papiers Inédits trouvés chez Robespierre, i. 77, 372. script note in his own handwriting, found | fend myself. You will not be taken by among Robespierre's papers after his surprise, for you have nothing in comdeath, there is one which openly an- mon with the tyrants who attack me. nounces the intention of cutting off the The cries of oppressed innocence will whole middle classes, and for that pur- not offend your ears; their cause cannot pose arming against them the lower.* be alien to you. Tyrants seek to deVadier, Amar, Vouland, and the other stroy the cause of freedom by giving members of the Committee of General it the name of tyranny; patriots reply Safety, vied with Collot d'Herbois and only by the force of truth. Think not Billaud Varennes in that of Public Sal- I am here to prefer accusations; I am vation, in measures of extermination. coming to discharge duty-to unfold So familiar had the work of destruction the hideous plots which threaten the become, that it had grown into a subject ruin of the Republic. We have not been of merriment. "This is well; the crop too severe. I call to witness the Reis large; the baskets will be filled," said public, which yet breathes-the Conone, when signing a long list "for exe-vention, surrounded by the respect of cution." "I could not help laughing at the figure these wretches cut on the scaffold," exclaimed another. "I often go to see the executions," said a third; "come to-morrow, there will be a grand display." In effect, the members of the committees sometimes went to contem-crimes of the aristocracy, and protecting plate the last moments of their victims from some of the neighbouring windows. the people—the patriots, who groan in the dungeons which wretches have opened for them. It is not we who have plunged the patriots into prisons; it is the monsters whom we have accused. It is not we who, forgetting the the traitors, have declared war against peaceable citizens, and erected into crimes things indifferent, to find guilty persons everywhere, and render the Revolution terrible even to the people; it is the monsters whom we have to accuse. 66 64. At length, on the 8th Thermidor (26th July), the contest began in the National Convention. The discourse of Robespierre, which he had composed the day before in the solitudes of the They call me a tyrant. If I were forest of Montmorency, under the in- so, they would fall at my feet: I should spiration of the genius of Rousseau, was have gorged them with gold, assured dark and enigmatical, but earnest and them of impunity to their crimes, and eloquent. He wore the dress in which they would have worshipped me. Had he had appeared at the fête of the Su- I been so, the kings whom we have conpreme Being on the 7th June. "Citi-quered would have been my most corzens," said he, "let others lay before you flattering pictures; I will unveil the real truth. I come not to increase terrors spread abroad by perfidy; I come to defend your outraged authority, and violated independence: I will also de * "One will is requisite-one alone. Our internal dangers spring from the bourgeois class-we must summon the people. The sansculottes must be paid and kept in the towns. They must be provided with arms, and show that the insurrection spreads from one to another on the same principle. Writers must be proscribed as the most dangerous enemies of their country, and, above all, guilty deputies and administrators must be punished. If these deputies are sent, the Republic is lost." -Note écrite de la main de Robespierre; Deux Amis, xii. 353. Papiers trouvés chez Robespierre, i. 36, ii. 15. VOL. III. dial supporters. It is by the aid of scoundrels you arrive at tyranny. Whither tend those who combat them? To the tomb and immortality! Who is the tyrant that protects me? What is the faction to which I belong? It is yourselves! What is the party which, since the commencement of the Revolution, has crushed all other factions-has annihilated 'so many specious traitors? It is yourselves; it is the people; it is the force of principles! This is the party to which I am devoted, and against which crime is everywhere leagued. I am ready to lay down my life without regret. I have seen the past; I foresee the future. What lover of his country would wish to live when he can no longer G succour oppressed innocence? Why | mittee against that of Public Salvation; should he desire to remain in an order even some members of this latter have of things where intrigue eternally tri- been infected; and the coalition thus umphs over truth; where justice is formed seeks to ruin the country. What deemed an imposture; where the vilest is the remedy for the evil? To punish passions, the most ridiculous fears, fill the traitors; to purge the committees every heart, instead of the sacred in- of their unworthy members; to place terests of humanity? Who can bear the the Committee of General Safety under punishment of seeing that horrible suc- the control of that of Public Salvation; cession of traitors more or less skilful in to establish the unity of government concealing their hideous vices under the under the auspices of the Convention; mask of virtue, and who will leave to and thus to crush faction under the posterity the difficult task of determin- weight of the national representation, ing which was the most atrocious? In and raise on its ruins the power of juscontemplating the multitude of vices tice and freedom." which the Revolution has let loose pellmell with the civic virtues, I own I sometimes fear I shall be sullied in the eyes of posterity by their calumnies. But I am consoled by the reflection that, if I have seen in history all the defenders of liberty overwhelmed by calumny, I have seen their oppressors die also. The good and the bad disappear alike from the earth; but in very different conditions. No, Chaumette! 'Death is not an eternal sleep!'-Citizens, efface from the tombs that maxim engraven by sacrilegious hands, which throws a funereal pall over nature, which discourages oppressed innocence: write rather, 'Death is the commencement of immortality!' I leave to the oppressors of the people a terrible legacy, which well becomes the situation in which I am placed: it is the awful truth, 'Thou shalt die !' 65. This speech was received with breathless attention; not a sound was heard during its delivery; not a whisper of applause followed its close. At the proposal that it should be printed, the first symptoms of resistance began. Bourdon de l'Oise opposed its publication; but, Barère having supported it, the Convention, fearful of committing itself openly with its enemies, agreed to the proposal. The members of the Committee of General Safety, seeing the majority wavering, deemed it now necessary to take decisive steps. "It is no longer time," said Cambon, "for dissembling: one man paralyses the Assembly, and that man is Robespierre."-" We must pull the mask off any countenance on which it is placed," said Billaud Varennes; "I would rather that my carcass served for a throne to the tyrant, than render myself by my silence the "We no longer tread on roses; we accomplice of his crimes.". It is not are marching on a volcano. For six enough," said Vadier, “for him to be a weeks I have been reduced to a state of tyrant; he aims further, like a second impotence in the Committee of Public Mahomet, at being proclaimed the enSalvation; during that time has faction voy of God." Fréron proposed to throw been better restrained, or the country off the hated yoke of the committees. more happy? Representatives of the "The moment is at last arrived," said people, the time has arrived when you he, "to revive the liberty of opinion. should assume the attitude which befits I propose that the Assembly shall reyou; you are not placed here to be go- verse the decree which permitted the verned, but to govern the depositaries arrest of the representatives of the peoof your confidence. Let it be spoken ple; who can debate with freedom when out at once: a conspiracy exists against imprisonment is hanging over his head?" the public freedom; it springs from a Some applause followed this proposal; criminal intrigue in the bosom of the but Robespierre was felt to be too Convention; that intrigue is conducted powerful to be overthrown by the Conby the members of the Committee of vention, unaided by the committees: General Safety; the enemies of the Re- this extreme measure therefore was republic have contrived to array that Com-jected, and the Assembly contented itself with reversing the decree which ordered | to exist."* Couthon then proposed the the publication of his address, and sent immediate expulsion of all the members it to the committees for examination. of the Convention who had voted against "Had Robespierre," said Barère, "for the printing of Robespierre's speech, and the last four decades attended the com- they were instantly, including Collot mittee, or attended to its operations, d'Herbois and Billaud Varennes, forcihe would have suppressed his address. bly turned out, in the midst of mingled You must banish from your thoughts hisses and menaces. During all the the word accused." In the end Robes- night, Robespierre made arrangements pierre retired, surprised at the resist- for the disposal of his partisans on the ance he had experienced, but still con- following day. Their point of rendezfident of success on the following day, vous were fixed at the Hotel de Ville, from the contemplated insurrection of where they were to be in readiness to the Jacobins and of the municipality, receive his orders from the National and the unbounded influence which he Convention. had long enjoyed with the people. 66. In the evening he repaired to the popular society, where he was received with enthusiasm. Henriot, Dumas, Coffinhal, and his other satellites, surrounded him, and declared themselves ready for action. After reading the speech he had delivered in the Convention, Robespierre said, "That speech is my last testament. I see how it is: the league against me is so powerful that I cannot hope to escape it. I die without regret. I bequeath to you my memory. You will defend it."- "No; you shall live, or we shall die together," exclaimed the people from the galleries. "No," he replied; "I have read to you my testament; my deathbed testament." Upon these words, pronounced in a solemn and mournful tone, sobs were heard in all parts of the hall. Coffinhal, Duplay, Payan, Buonarotti, Lebas, David, rose at once and conjured him not to despair, but to save them, the country, and himself. "I know," said Henriot, "the road to the Convention, and I am ready to take it again."" Go," said Robespierre, "separate the wicked from the weak; deliver the Assembly from the wretches who enthral it; render it the service which it expects from you, as you did on the 31st May and the 2dJune. March! you may yet save liberty!" After describing the attacks directed against his person, he added, "I am ready, if necessary, to drink the cup of Socrates." "Robespierre," exclaimed David, "I am ready to drink it with you: the enemies of Robespierre are those of the country; let them be named, and they shall cease 67. The two committees, on their side, were not idle. During the whole night they sat in deliberation. It was felt by every one that a combination of all parties was required to shake the redoubted power of Robespierre. All their efforts, accordingly, were directed to this object. St Just continued firm to his leader; but, by unremitting exertions, the Jacobins of the Mountain succeeded in forming a coalition with the leaders of the Plain and of the Right. Tallien, who was the life of the conspiracy, was stimulated to exertion by the danger of Theresa de Fontenay, who was in prison, and threatened with instant death if the power of Robespierre was not immediately destroyed. had contrived, by bribing the jailers, to send a note written with blood to him, which was secretly put into his hand in the street, by a female who instantly disappeared, which announced her trial for the succeeding day. This intelligence stimulated his efforts, and he was indefatigable in his endeavours to bring about the requisite coalition of She the 9th Thermidor, he had said this. "Robes* David, much to his credit, admitted, after pierre called out that it only remained for him to drink the hemlock. I said to him, 'I shall drink it with you.""--Paroles de David, Séance du 10 Thermidor, 1794; Journal de la Montagne, 11, 93, vol. v. p. 779. "The officer of police has just left: he came to announce to me that to-morrow I should go up to the tribunal; that is to say, to the scaffold. This bears little resemblance to the dream I had last night-Robespierre was no more, and the prisons were opened. But, thanks to your cowardice, there will soon be no one in France to realise this dream." THERESA to TALLIEN, 7th Thermidor, 1794; LAMARTINE, Ilistoire des Girondins, viii. 316. "Take parties. "Do not flatter yourselves," presage and cause of success. said Tallien to the Girondists, "that he your place," said he, entering from the will ever spare you; you have commit-lobby, where he had been walking with ted an unpardonable offence in being Durand Maillane; "I have come to witfreemen. Let us bury our ruinous di- ness the triumph of freedom; this evenvisions in oblivion. You weep for Ver- ing Robespierre is no more." At noon gniaud—we weep for Danton; let us St Just mounted the tribune: Robesunite their shades by striking Robes- pierre took his station on the bench pierre."* "Do you still live?" said he directly opposite, to intimidate his adto the Jacobins; "has the tyrant spared versaries by his look. But he could not you this night? yet your names are the bear the glance of Tallien, whose counforemost on the list of proscription. In tenance expressed the greatest determia few days he will have your heads, if nation, and whom he with justice reyou do not take his. For two months | garded as his most formidable adveryou have shielded us from his strokes; sary. Already his weakness, on the apyou may now rely on our support as on proach of personal danger, was maniour gratitude." The Côté Droit long re- fest. His knees trembled, the colour sisted the energetic efforts made by the fled from his lips as he ascended to his Jacobins in the Convention to bring seat; the hostile appearance of the Conthem over to a coalition, but at length vention already gave him an anticipathey acquiesced, unable, as they them- tion of his fate. selves said, to bear any longer the sight 69. St Just commenced the debate of fifty heads falling a-day. The friends with a speech from the tribune. "I of Danton were so exasperated at the belong," said he, "to no party; I will death of their leader, that they repelled combat them all. The course of events at first all advances towards a reconci- has possibly determined that this triliation; but at length, moved by the bune should be the Tarpeian rock for entreaties of the Plain and the Right, him who now tells you that the memthey agreed to join the conspiracy. Be- bers of the committees have strayed fore daybreak, all the Convention had from the path of wisdom." Upon this united for the overthrow of the tyrant. he was violently interrupted by Tallien, 68. At an early hour on the morning who took the lead in the revolt. "Shall of the 9th Thermidor (27th July), the the speaker," said he, "forever arrogate benches of the Convention were throng- to himself, with the tyrant of whom he ed by its members; those of the Moun- is the satellite, the privilege of denountain were particularly remarkable for cing, accusing, and proscribing the memthe serried ranks and determined looks bers of the Assembly? Shall he for ever of the coalition. The leaders walked go on amusing us with imaginary perils, about the passages, confirming each when real and pressing dangers are beother in their resolution. Bourdon de fore our eyes? After the enigmatical l'Oise pressed Durand Maillane by the expressions of the tyrant yesterday from hand, Rovère and Tallien followed his that place, can we doubt what St Just example-"Oh, the gentlemen of the is about to propose? You are about," Côté Droit are honest men!" said the said he, "to raise the veil: I will tear latter. Tallien evinced that undoubt-it asunder!" Loud applauses on all ing confidence which is so often the * "Le ciel entre nos mains a mis le sort de Rome, Et son salut dépend de la perte d'un homme: d'humain A ce tigre altéré de tout le sang Romain! Combien pour le repandre a-t-il formé de brigues; Combien de fois changé de partis et de ligues, Tantôt ami d'Antoine, et tantôt ennemi, sides followed this exclamation. "Yes!" exclaimed he, "I will tear it asunder. I will exhibit the danger in its full extent; the tyrant in his true colours! It is the whole Convention which he now proposes to destroy. He knows well, since his overthrow yesterday, that great body, he will no longer find that, however much he may mutilate it the instrument of his tyrannical de CORNEILLE, Cinna, Act 1, scene 3. | signs. He is resolved that no sanctu |