XV. 1794. an oppressor? If there is, let him stand forth; for him CHAP. have I offended. Tremble, tyrant! tremble! See with what horror freemen shrink from your polluted touch! We enjoy your agony; but the public safety requires it should no longer be prolonged. I declare, if the National Convention hesitate to pass the decree of accusation, I will plunge this dagger in your bosom :" and he drew the glittering steel from his breast in the midst of deafening shouts from the Convention, which shook with the tumult. During this impassioned harangue, which was pronounced with the most vehement action, Robespierre sat motion- la Mont. No. less, but deadly pale. The Convention, amidst a violent 92, Vol. v. tumult, declared its sittings permanent till the sword of the xxxiv. 21, 24; and law had secured the Revolution, and decreed the arrest of Moniteur, July 29, p. Henriot, Dumas, and the other associates of the tyrant; 1272. and numerous measures of precaution were suggested. 1 Journ, de Hist. Parl. agitation in Robespierre tried in vain, during the tumult which 71. followed this address, to obtain a hearing. The president, Dreadful Thuriot, whom he had often threatened with death, con- the Assemstantly drowned his voice by ringing his bell. In vain he bly. looked for support among the former satellites of his power; all, frozen with terror, shrank from his gaze. "A bas le tyran!” resounded from all sides of the hall. Barère then, in the name of the Committee of Public Salvation, related that an officer of the Allies, made prisoner in a late action in Belgium, had said “All your successes will not avail you; we are not the less confident; we shall conclude a peace with a fraction of the Convention, and soon change the government.' The government cannot conceal that the moment of danger has arrived. The committees are attacked; their members are covered with calumnies; the conspirators would destroy whatever intelligence or energy there is in the country, and denounce members on whose patriotism you are now to pronounce." On his motion the Convention decreed, by acclamation, that all ranks in the national guard above that of chief of a legion should be suppressed, that each commander of a legion should XV. 1794. CHAP. command in his turn, and that the mayor and municipality of Paris should answer with their heads for the security of the Convention. This decree was levelled at Henriot. But Tallien, who perceived that, amidst these multifarious proposals, the main object of destroying Robespierre was likely to be forgotten, resumed his place in the tribune. "Let us think only of the tyrant: you have not a moment to lose; he is every hour collecting his strength. Why accumulate charges, when his conduct is engraven on every heart? Let him perish by the arm he has invented to destroy others. To what accused did he ever give the right of speaking in his defence? Let us say with the juries of the Revolutionary Tribunal, Our minds have long been made up.' If you declare him hors la loi, can he complain who has put hors la loi nine-tenths of France? Let there 1 Hist. Parl. be no formalities with the accused; you cannot too much 29. Journ. abridge their punishment: he has told you so himself a Vol. v. No. hundred times. Let us strike him in the bosom of the 92, p. 756. Lac. xi. 100, Assembly; let his associates perish with him on the bench of the Revolutionary Tribunal, in the club of the Jacobins, at the head of the traitorous Municipality.1 xxxiv. 25, de la Mont. 102. Mig.ii. 338, 339. 72. Tallien and "Were I," continued Tallien, "to recount the acts of Contest of individual oppression of which he has been guilty, I would Robespierre, say that, during the time when Robespierre was charged with the general police, they have all been committed, and that the patriots of the Revolutionary Committee of the Section of Indivisibility have been arrested."-" It is false!" cried Robespierre; "I"-Loud cries drowned his voice. For a moment he fixed an eager gaze on the most ardent of the Mountain. Some averted their eyes; others looked down the great majority remained motionless. Casting then a despairing look round the hall, he at length turned to the few survivors of the Girondists. Turn away from these benches!" they exclaimed ; Vergniaud and Condorcet have sat here."-" Pure and virtuous citizens," said he to the deputies on the right, "will you give me the liberty of speech which the assassins : XV. 1794. refuse?" A profound silence followed the demand. "For CHAP. the last time, President of Assassins !" said he, turning to the chair, "will you allow me to speak?" The continued noise drowned his voice. "You shall not have it but in your turn;" and soon "Never, never!" resounded on all sides. "Diversi lingue, orribili favelle, Parole di dolore, accenti d'ira, Voci alte e fioche, e suon di man con elle, He then sank on his seat, pale and exhausted; his voice, which had become a shrill scream from agitation and vehemence, at length totally failed; foam issued from his mouth. "Wretch !" exclaimed a voice from the Mountain, "you are choked by the blood of Danton."-"Ah! you would avenge Danton," rejoined Robespierre: "cowards! why did you not defend him?"-"I demand the arrest of Robespierre," cried Louchet. "Agreed! agreed !" resounded on all sides. "Citizens," exclaimed Billaud Varennes, "liberty is about to be restored."—"Say rather,” replied Robespierre, "that crime is about to prevail: the Republic is abandoned to brigands." The act of accusation was then carried amidst the most violent agitation. The 1 Lac. xi. younger brother of Robespierre had the generosity to insist iv. 382, 383. that he should be included in the charge. "I am as culpable as my brother," said he; "I share his virtues, I am willing to share his fate." Lebas followed his example. At length the two Robespierres, Lebas, Couthon, St Just, No. 92, pp. Dumas, and Henriot, were unanimously decreed under Lam. Hist. arrest, and ordered to be sent to prison; and the Conven- 337, 338. tion broke up, in the utmost agitation, at five o'clock.1 * "Various tongues, Horrible languages, outcries of woe, Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse, With hands together smote, that swell'd the sounds, Made up a tumult that for ever whirls Round through that air with solid darkness stain'd, Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies." CARY'S DANTE, Inferno, iii. 25. 104. Toul. Levasseur, . 147. iii. Hisar, Parl. xxxiv. 31, 34. Journ. de la Mont. 751, 752. des Gir. viii. CHAP. XV. 1794. During this terrible contest, the partisans of Robespierre were collecting at the hall of the Jacobins and the Hôtel de Ville. They expected that he would be victorious in the Convention, and that the armed force would tions to sup- only be called on to support its decrces. Part of the pierre at the national guard were assembled at the rendezvous, when a 73. Prepara port Robes Hotel de Ville. messenger arrived from the Convention requiring the mayor to appear at the bar, and give an account of the state of the capital. Return to your associates," said Henriot, with his drawn sabre in his hand, "and say that we are in deliberation here how to purify their ranks. Tell Robespierre to remain firm and fear nothing. He is supported by the people." Payan hastily drew up an address, in which they denounced to the people the oppressors of the most virtuous of patriots, Robespierre, St Just, the Apostle of Virtue, and Couthon, “whose heart and head alone live; the flame of patriotism has consumed his body." But alarming news soon arrived. At half-past four they received intelligence of the arrest of Robespierre and his accomplices, which soon circulated with the rapidity of lightning through Paris. Instantly they gave orders to sound the tocsin, close the barriers, convoke the General Council, and assemble the Sections. The Jacobins declared their sittings permanent; an energetic proclamation, calling on the people to rise, was issued from the Hôtel de Ville; and the most rapid means of * The following are the terms of this proclamation :-"Brothers and Friends, the country is in imminent danger : the wicked have mastered the Convention, where they hold in chains the virtuous Robespierre, who passed the decree so consoling to humanity on the existence of God and the immortality of the soul; Couthon, that venerable citizen, who has but a heart and a head alive, as the rest of his body has been consumed by patriotism; St Just, that virtuous apostle, who first checked treason in the army of the Rhine and the north; Lebas, their worthy colleague; the younger Robespierre, so well known for his labours with the army of Italy. And who are their enemies? Collot d'Herbois, an old comedian, convicted under the old regime of having stolen the strong-box of his troop of players; Bourdon de l'Oise, the perpetual calumniator of the municipality of Paris; one Barère, the ready tool of every faction which is uppermost; one Tallien, and Fréron, the intimate friends of the infamous Danton. To arms! To arms! Let us not lose the fruit of the 10th August and the 2d June. Death to the traitors !"-Hist. Parl. xxxiv. 46. XV. 1794. 1 Hist. Parl. 47. Journ. communication were established between these two great CHAP. centres of the insurrection. To excite the people to revolt, Henriot, with a drawn sabre in his hand, at the head of his staff, traversed the streets, exclaiming, "To arms, to save the country!" In his course through the Faubourg St Antoine, he met the procession of forty-nine prisoners proceeding as usual to execution: the crowd had stopped xxxiv. 41, the chariots, and loudly demanded that they should be de la Mont. released, which Samson, the long-practised executioner, No. 92. endeavoured to support: but Henriot had the barbarity xii. 398,401. to order them to be led on, and they all suffered. On 30 Juillet, his return, two deputies of the Convention met him in xi. 105, 109. the Rue St Honoré, and prevailed on some horsemen to obey the orders of the Convention, and arrest his person he was handcuffed, and conducted to the Committee of General Safety. About the same time Payan was seized. The Convention seemed triumphant; its principal enemies 350. were in confinement. 1 Moniteur, p. 1276. Lac. Toul. iv. 384, 385. Th. vi. 442, : 443. Hist. de la Conv. Lam. Hist. vi. 164. des Gir. viii. 74. is imprison rated. But the insurgents regained their advantage between six and seven o'clock, in consequence of the dispersion of the Robespierre members of the Convention and the energetic measures of ed, but libethe municipality. Robespierre had been sent to the Luxembourg, where he was refused entrance, on the ground that the commune had prohibited them from receiving any prisoner but such as they had committed. He was then taken to the central police-office, where he was at once received in triumph by the officers of the municipality. The younger Robespierre had been sent to Saint Lazare, Couthon to the Bourbe, St Just to the Ecossais, and the other conspirators to the different prisons of Paris. The magistrates sent detachments to deliver them. Robespierre was speedily brought in triumph to the Hôtel de Ville, where he was received with the utmost enthusiasm, and soon joined by his brother and St Just. Coffinhal set off at the head of two hundred cannoneers to deliver Henriot; he arrived in the Place du Carrousel, and having forced the guard of the Convention, |