the whole leaders of the Anarchists were arrested by CHAP. their former agent, Henriot, at the head of the armed XIV. 1794. 1 Hist. Parl. force which they had so often wielded against the government, and sent before the Revolutionary Tribunal, to xxxi. 329, stand trial for a conspiracy to put a tyrant at the head of Amis, xii. affairs.1 331. Deux 122, 125. 93. graceful Hébert, Ronsin, Anacharsis Clootz, Momoro, Vincent, and fifteen others of their party, were all condemned. Their disThey evinced the native baseness of their dispositions by death. their cowardice in their last moments. The infamous March 26. Hébert wept from weakness; his agony was so conspicuous, that it attracted the eyes of all spectators from the sufferings of the other prisoners. The numerous captives in the prisons of Paris could hardly believe their eyes when they beheld the tyrants, who had sent so many to execution, and who were preparing a new massacre in the prisons, consigned, in their turn, to the scaffold. The populace, with their usual inconstancy, manifested joy at their punishment, and, in particular, loaded with maledictions the very Hébert, for whose deliverance from the arrest of the Convention they had once put all Paris in insurrection. Such was the public avidity to see the execution of these leaders, lately so popular, that considerable sums were realised by the sale of seats on the fatal chariots, to witness their agonies, and on the tables and benches arranged round the scaffold.* Hébert, in particular, was the object of universal execration his atheistical mummeries had alienated all the better class of citizens, and the numerous denunciations he had undergone from Robespierre and St Just, had rendered him an object of detestation to the populace. He made no * "Hébert montra jusqu'au bout une extrême faiblesse. Pendant le trajet de la Conciergerie à l'échafaud, le spectacle de son agonie empêcha que l'on pût être attentif à la contenance de ses compagnons. La dernière nuit dans la prison il a eu des accès de désespoir." Ronsin said in prison to him, "Vous avez parlé aux Cordeliers, tandis qu'il fallait agir-on vous arrête en chemin ; et vous deviez savoir que, tôt ou tard, les instrumens des révolutions sont brisés."– Rapport d'un détenu dans les prisons avec HEBERT; and Histoire Parlementaire, xxxi. 53, 55. XIV. 1794. CHAP. attempt to conceal his terrors: he sank down at every step; and the vile populace, so recently his worshippers, followed the car, mimicking the cry of the persons who used to hawk his journal about the streets," Father Duchesne is in a devil of a rage." The victory of the Decemvirs was complete. They followed up the blow by disbanding the revolutionary force stationed at Paris, and diminishing the power of the committees of sections; all steps, and not unimportant ones, to the establishment of a regular government. The municipality of Paris, subdued by terror, was compelled to send a deputation to the ConTh. vi. 162, vention, returning thanks for the arrest and punishment of its own members. And the Committee of Public SalvaHist. Parl. tion succeeded in destroying the very man of whose infamous journal they had shortly before been in the habit xxxii. 53, of distributing ten thousand copies daily at the public expense.1+ 1 Deux Amis, xii. 125, 126. 182. Lac. ii. 144. Mig. ii. 310. xxxi. 397, 399, and 55. 94. Danton and his partisans had not long the satisfaction Rupture of exulting over the destruction of the Anarchists. Robesbetween Danton and pierre and he had a meeting in the house of the former, Robespierre. but it led to no accommodation. Danton complained violently 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 * 1 "Il est b- -t en colère le Père Duchesne"-alluding to his journal, Lettres b- -t patriotiques du veritable Père Duchesne. In recounting such scenes, the spirit is lost if the very words are not used. In the proceedings against Hébert, some curious facts came out as to the means by which the infamous revolutionary press of Paris had been stimulated during the principal crises of the Revolution. The following entries appear :"Extrait des Registres de la Trésorerie Nationale. 2 Juin.--(Arrest of Girondists) Donné au See Histoire Parlementaire, xxxi. 232; Vieux Cordelier, No. V. and Père Duchesne, No. 330, 332. "Le Comité du Salut Public faisait distribuer tous les jours dix mille exemplaires de ce journal. Ainsi le Père Duchesne n'était que l'organe des principes de ce comité."-PRUDHOMME, V. 143. 66 XIV. 1794. not fear it."-"You are wrong," said Robespierre, "they CHAP. have no bad intentions against you; but it is well to be explicit. Not only do the Committee bear you no ill will, but they ardently desire to strengthen their government by the principal leaders of the Mountain. Should I be here if I desired your head? would I offer my hand if I thought of assassinating you? Our enemies are sowing jealousies betwixt us: take care, Danton! In taking your friends for enemies, you may oblige them to become So. Let us see-can we not come to an understanding? Is it, or is it not, necessary for power to be terrible, when it would coerce the wicked?" Yes," said Danton; "without doubt it is necessary to coerce the Royalists; but we should not confound the innocent with the guilty."—" And who has told you," said Robespierre, "that one innocent person has perished?" Danton, upon this, turning to the friend who accompanied him, said with a bitter smile" What say you? Not one innocent has perished?" They parted mutually exasperated. All intercourse between them immediately ceased. Robespierre, however, hesitated much before taking the decisive step of his arrest. "Ah!" said he, "that I had the lantern of the great philosopher, to read Danton's heart, and know whether he really is a friend or enemy of the Republic." The extreme Jacobins were less scrupulous; they openly demanded Danton's head, "to take away a false god from the multitude, and restore the worship of pure revolutionary virtue." These feelings, however, were not general. Robespierre had sufficient evidence, during the days that I Prudhom. immediately followed the execution of the Anarchists, v.146. Hist. that terror had reached its extreme point, and that a 62. Mig.ii. return to humanity was at length ardently desired by the vi. 189. people. Innumerable addresses were presented to the Journ. de Convention, between the 26th and 30th March, congratu- No. 139, p. lating them on the execution of the men who had dis- Hist. des graced the Revolution;1 the revolutionary army, of which 10.7 Ronsin had been the chief, was disbanded amidst general Parl. xxxii. 308. Th. la Mont. Gir. viii. 2, XIV. CHAP. 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. 1794. Collot 95. d'Herbois at the Jacobins. March 29. In truth, the Dantonists and friends of humanity, overSpeech of joyed at the punishment of Hébert and the extreme Anarchist leaders, gave full reins to their intoxication, and imprudently spread the report through Paris, that the reign of blood was about to terminate. They even went so far as to suggest that a return should be at last made to more humane principles. Collot d'Herbois and the Jacobins sufficiently showed, however, that the Committee of Public Salvation had no intention of arresting the march of the Revolution. "The counter-revolutionists," said he, at their club, "announce by a thousand mouths, that the bust of Marat is about to be disgraced, and replaced by that of the monster who assassinated him. The aristocracy wish to profit by existing circumstances to attack the Revolution, by uniting the purest to the oppressors, and assimilating the traitors who have just been punished to the martyrs of liberty. They even go so far as to propose that the Jacobins should go into their projects, and make all the supporters of the Revolution tremble. Already they have proscribed Chalier; soon they will proscribe Marat too, and replace his bust by some other one, probably that of the tyrant. (Loud cries of indignation.) Open your eyes to the dangers which surround you, and you will see that measures very different from those proposed by the Moderates are now called for government will act differently. They have caused the thunder to fall on the infamous men who have deceived the people; they have torn from them the masks which concealed their hideous outrages; they will tear the mask 1 Journ, de from others: let not the Moderates suppose that it is for la Mont. No. 139. Séance, 29 Mars, p. 1125. them that we have held 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.”1 CHAP. 1794. 96. Danton. 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 Arrest of 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 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 friend, the confident of our first republican dreams. His hand united ours; he was our father; he cannot have turned our assassin."* Danton, on entering the prison, cordially * He had signed the marriage contract of Camille Desmoulins with Lucile, |