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XV.

1794. 66.

nary meet

ing at the Jacobins.

:

You will defend it."

CHAP. Jacobins and of the municipality, and the unbounded influence which he had long enjoyed with the people. In the evening he repaired to the popular society, Extraordi- 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. "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 death-bed 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 2d June. 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. 427. Hist. of Robespierre are those of the country; let them be iv. 39, 64. named, and they shall cease to exist."1* Couthon then Journ de la proposed the immediate expulsion of all the members of the Lam. Hist. Convention who had voted against the printing of Robes310. pierre's speech, and they were instantly, including Collot

1 Hist. Parl.

xxxiv. 23.

Mont.v.779.

des Gir. viii.

d'Herbois and Billaud Varennes, forcibly turned out, in

David, much to his credit, admitted, after the 9th Thermidor, he had said this. "Robespierre s'écria qu'il ne lui restait qu'à boire la ciguë. Je lui dis: 'Je la boirai avec toi.""-Paroles de DAVID, Séance du 10 Thermidor 1794; Journal de la Montagne, 11, 93, p. 779, vol. v.

XV.

1794.

the midst of mingled hisses and menaces. During all CHAP. the night, Robespierre made arrangements for the disposal of his partisans on the following day. Their point of rendezvous were fixed at the Hôtel de Ville, where they were to be in readiness to receive his orders from the National Convention.

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parations

night.

The two committees, on their side, were not idle. 67. During the whole night they sat in deliberation. It was Mutual prefelt by every one that a combination of all parties was during the 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. She had contrived, by bribing the jailors, 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 parties. "Do not flatter yourselves," said Tallien to the Girondists, "that he will ever spare you; you have committed an unpardonable offence in being freemen. Let us bury our ruinous divisions in oblivion. You weep for Vergniaudwe weep for Danton; let us unite their shades by striking Robespierre."+ "Do you still live?" said he to the

* "L'administrateur de police sort d'ici; il est venu m'annoncer que demain je monterai au tribunal; c'est-à-dire l'échafaud. Cela ressemble bien peu au rêve que j'ai fait cette nuit-Robespierre n'existait plus, et les prisons étaient ouvertes. Mais, grâce à votre insigne lâcheté, il ne se trouvera bientôt plus personne en France capable de le réaliser." THERESA à TALLIEN, 7th Thermidor 1794; LAMARTINE, Histoire des Girondins, viii. 316.

+"Le ciel entre nos mains a mis le sort de Rome,

Et son salut dépend de la perte d'un homme :

XV.

1794.

CHAP. Jacobins; "has the tyrant spared you this night? yet your names are the foremost on the list of proscription. In a few days he will have your heads, if you do not take his. For two months you have shielded us from his strokes; you may now rely on our support as on our gratitude." The Côté droit long resisted the energetic efforts made by the Jacobins in the Convention to bring them over to a coalition, but at length they acquiesced, Maillane, unable, as they themselves said, to bear any longer the Parl. xxxiv. sight of fifty heads falling a-day. The friends of Danton Amis, xii. were so exasperated at the death of their leader, that they Lac. repelled at first all advances towards a reconciliation; Th. vi. 430, but at length, moved by the entreaties of the Plain and the Right, they agreed to join the conspiracy. Before daybreak, all the Convention had united for the overthrow of the tyrant.1

1 Durand de

ch. x. Hist.

5. Deux

389

vi. 88, 93.

431. Lam.

Hist. des Gir. viii. 269.

68.

the 9th

July 27.

At an early hour on the morning of the 9th Thermidor, Meeting of (27th July,) the benches of the Convention were thronged Thermidor. by its members; those of the Mountain were particularly remarkable for the serried ranks and determined looks of the coalition. The leaders walked about the passages, confirming each other in their resolution. Bourdon de l'Oise pressed Durand Maillane by the hand, Rovère and Tallien followed his example-"Oh, the gentlemen of 3 Durand de the Côté droit are honest men!" said the latter. TalMaillane, lien evinced that undoubting confidence which is so xi.94. Hist. often the presage and cause of success. "Take your 6. Deux place," said he, entering from the lobby where he had been walking with Durand Maillane; "I have come to witness the triumph of freedom; this evening RobesAt noon St Just mounted the pierre is no more."2 tribune: Robespierre took his station on the bench

ch. x. Lac.

Parl. xxxiv.

Amis, xii.

389, 396.

Th. vi. 432.

Hist. de la

Conv. iv. 123.

Si l'on doit le nom d'homme à qui n'a rien 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,

Et jamais insolent ni cruel à demi."

CORNEILLE, Cinna, Act 1, Scene 3.

directly opposite, to intimidate his adversaries by his look. But he could not bear the glance of Tallien, whose countenance expressed the greatest determination, and whom he with justice regarded as his most formidable adversary. Already his weakness, on the approach of personal danger, was manifest. His knees trembled, the colour fled from his lips as he ascended to his seat; the hostile appearance of the Convention already gave him an anticipation of his fate.

CHAP.
XV.

1794.

69.

eloquence

St Just commenced the debate with a speech from the tribune. "I belong," said he, "to no party; I will Vehement combat them all. The course of events has possibly of Tallien. determined that this tribune should be the Tarpeian rock for him who now tells you that the members of the committees have strayed from the path of wisdom." Upon this he was violently interrupted by Tallien, who took the lead in the revolt. "Shall the speaker," said he, "for ever arrogate to himself, with the tyrant of whom he is the satellite, the privilege of denouncing, accusing, and proscribing the members of the Assembly? Shall he for ever go on amusing us with imaginary perils, when real and pressing dangers are before our eyes? After the enigmatical expressions of the tyrant yesterday from that place, can we doubt what St Just is about to propose ? You are about," said he, "to raise the veil: I will tear it asunder!" Loud applauses on all 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, however much he may mutilate that great body, he will no longer find it the instrument of his tyrannical designs. He is resolved that no sanctuary should exist for freedom, no retreat for the friends of the Republic. He has in consequence resolved to destroy you all; yes, this very day, ay, in a few hours. Two thousand assassins have sworn to execute his VOL. III.

Y

XV.

1794.

CHAP. designs; I myself last night heard their oaths, and fifty of my colleagues heard them with me. The massacre was to have commenced in the night with the Committee of Public Salvation and that of General Safety, all of whom were to have been sacrificed, except a few creatures of the tyrant ; the fidelity of the soldiers, who feared the Convention, alone has preserved them from this terrible calamity. Let us instantly take measures commensurate to the magnitude of the danger; let us declare our sittings permanent till the conspiracy is broken, and its chiefs arrested. I have la Mont. vol. no difficulty in naming them; I have followed their steps 745. Hist. through their bloody conspiracy: I name Dumas, the atrocious President of the Revolutionary Tribunal; I name Henriot, the infamous commander of the national guard."1

1 Journ. de

v. No. 92, p.

Parl. xxxiv.

6, 21.

70. Speech of Billaud Varennes.

Here Billaud Varennes interrupted the orator, and gave some fuller details on the conspiracy which had been matured in the Society of the Jacobins, and denounced Robespierre as its chief. Yesterday," said he, "at the Jacobins were several base apostates; hardly one of them had tickets of admission, but they fully developed the plan of massacring the Convention. There I heard the most infamous sallies vented against the men who have never deviated from the Revolution. I see on the Mountain there, some of the men who menaced the national representation." At these words a cry arose"Seize him! seize him!" and the individual alluded to was dragged from his seat, and hurled out amidst loud applause. "The Assembly will perish," he concluded, "if it shows the least signs of weakness."-"We shall never perish!" exclaimed the members, rising in a transport of enthusiasm from their seats. Tallien resumed : "Can there be any doubt now about the reality of the conspiracy? have you conquered so many tyrants only to crouch beneath the yoke of the most atrocious of them all? I see among you a new Cromwell. The charge against Robespierre is already written in your hearts. Is there one among you who will declare that he is not

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