to crawl into the entrance of a sewer, from whence he was dragged out by the troops of the Convention.* CHAP. XV. 1794. 83. scene after Robespierre and Couthon, being supposed to be dead, were dragged by the heels to the Quai Pelletier, where it Dreadful was proposed to throw them into the river; but it being his seizure. discovered, when light was brought, that they still breathed, they were stretched on a board, and carried to the Convention between one and two o'clock in the morning. The members having refused to admit them, they were conveyed to the Committee of General Safety, where Robespierre lay for nine hours stretched on a table in the salle d'audience, with his broken jaw still bleeding, and suffering alike under bodily pain, and the execrations and insults of those around him. During the whole time that this cruel torture lasted, he evinced a stoical apathy. Foam merely issued from his mouth, which the humanity of some around him led them to wipe off; but he grasped with convulsive energy the pistol which he had not had sufficient time, or time, or wanted courage, to discharge. discharge. His face retained its habitual bilious tint, but mingled with the ashen hue of death. At six in the morning a surgeon was sent for, who found the left jaw broken: he took out two or three teeth which were crushed by the shot, bandaged the jaw, and placed beside him a glass of water, with which he occasionally washed away the blood which filled his mouth. As he lay extended on the table, numbers reviled and spat upon him, and, to their eternal disgrace, some of his former colleagues in the committees insulted him, while the * Many authors affirm that Robespierre shot himself. That he had a pistol in his hand is certain; but Levasseur de la Sarthe and Meda, the gendarmes who arrested him, agree in stating that his jaw was broken by a shot fired by the last of these parties. See LEVASSEUR, iii. 154; MEDA, 385. Lamartine, in his Histoire des Girondins, gives the same account :-"Leonard Bourdon saisit de la main droite le bras du gendarme Meda armé d'un pistolet: et indiquant de la main gauche celui qu'il fallait viser, il dirige le canon de l'arme sur Robespierre, et dit au gendarme-'C'est lui!' Le coup part-Robespierre tombe, la tête en avant, sur la table, tachant de son sang la proclamation qu'il n'a pas achevé de signer."--LAMARTINE, Histoire des Girondins, viii. 364, 365. 1 XV. 1794. Rapport, née du 9 Thermidor, trouv. chez 73. Conv. iv. CHAP. clerks of the office pricked him with their penknives.1* At length he arose and sat down on a chair; he then gazed around him, fixing his eyes chiefly on the clerks in sur la Jour- the office, whom he recognised. But he exhibited great fortitude, especially in the dressing of the wound, which Pap. inédits occasioned acute pain. Shortly after, he was sent to the Rob. ii. 71, Conciergerie, where he was confined in the same cell which had been occupied by Danton, Hébert, and Chaumette. From thence he was brought, with all his associates, to the Revolutionary Tribunal, and, as soon as the Hist. de la identity of their persons was established, they were con203. Levass. demned. St Just and Dumas were taken direct to the Deux Amis, Audience-Hall, at the office of the Committee of Public Hist. Parl. Salvation, and thence to the same prison. The former 93. Riouffe, gazed at the great picture of the Rights of Man placed 70. Mig. ii. there, and said, "It is I, nevertheless, who did that." 345. Meda, In entering the Conciergerie, St Just met General Hoche, xlii. 386. who had been confined there for some weeks by St Just Lac. xi. 118. himself. Instead of insulting his fallen enemy, Hoche pressed his hand, and stood aside to let him pass. The really heroic are never on great occasions unworthy of themselves.2 iii. 155. xii. 407. xxxiv. 92, Mém. xxiii. Rév. Mém. Th. vi. 456. 119. Lam. Hist. des Gir. viii. 369. 84. with St Just, Henriot, Couthon, and all their party. At four in the morning of the 29th July, all Paris was Executed in motion to witness the death of the tyrant. He was placed on the chariot, between Henriot and Couthon, whose persons were as mutilated as his own, the last in the vehicle, in order that, with the usual barbarity of the period, which he himself had been instrumental in introducing, he should see all his friends perish before him. They were bound by ropes to the benches of the car in which they were seated; and the rolling of the vehicle during the long passage, which was through the most populous quarters of Paris, produced such pain in their wounds, that they at times screamed aloud. The gen "Ses collègues des comités vinrent l'insulter, le frapper, lui cracher au visage; des commis de bureau le piquèrent de leurs canifs."-Derniers momens de Robespierre; Hist. Parl. xxxiv. 94. XV. 1794. darmes rode with their sabres presented to the people, CHAP. who clapped their hands, as they had done when Danton was led to execution. Robespierre's forehead, one eye, and part of the cheek, were alone seen above the bandage which bound up the broken jaw. St Just evinced throughout the most unconquerable fortitude. Robespierre cast his eyes on the crowd, turned them aside, and shrugged his shoulders. The multitude, which for long had ceased to attend the executions, manifested the utmost joy at their fate. They were conducted to the Place de la Révolution; the scaffold was placed on the spot where Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette had suffered. The statue of Liberty still surmounted the scene. Never had such a crowd been witnessed on any former occasion: the streets, despite the earliness of the hour, were thronged to excess; every window was filled; even the roofs of the houses, like the manned yards of a ship, were crowded with spectators. The joy was universal; it almost approached to delirium. The blood from Robespierre's jaw burst through the bandage, and overflowed his dress; his face was ghastly pale. He kept his eyes shut, when he saw the general feeling, during the time the procession lasted, but could not close his ears against the imprecations of the multitude. A woman, breaking from the crowd, exclaimed-" Murderer of all my kindred! your agony fills me with joy: descend to hell covered with the curses of every mother in France!" He ascended the scaffold with a firm step, and was laid down near the axe. Twenty of his comrades were executed before him; during Amis, xii. the time they were suffering, he lay on the scaffold with Mig. ii. 346 his eyes shut, never uttering a word. When lifted up to Conv. iv. be tied to the fatal plank, the executioner tore the iv. 391. bandage from his face; the lower jaw fell upon his breast, Th. vi. 457. and he uttered a yell which filled every heart with horror. For some minutes the frightful figure was held up, fixed to the board, to the multitude; he was then placed under the axe, and the last sounds which reached VOL. III. Z 1 Deux 408, 409. Hist. de la 213. Toul. Lac. xi. 120. Levasseur, iii. 184, 187. des Gir. viii. 370, 374. CHAP. his ears were the exulting shouts, which were prolonged for some minutes after his death. XV. 1794. 85. Transports Along with Robespierre were executed Henriot, Couthon, St Just, Dumas, Coffinhal, Simon, and all the leaders of the pub- of the revolt. Of these, St Just alone displayed the firmness which had so often been witnessed among the victims lic, and exe cution of the rest of his party. 1 Lac. xi. vi. 457. Moniteur, whom they had sent to the scaffold. Couthon wept with terror the others died uttering blasphemies, which were drowned by the cheers of the people. The spectators shed tears for joy, they embraced each other in transport, they crowded round the scaffold to behold the bloody remains of the tyrants. Yes, Robespierre! there is a God!" said a poor man, as he approached the lifeless body of one so lately the object of dread. His fall was felt by all present as an immediate manifestation of the Divinity. Seventy-three of his party were executed next day, comprising all the leaders of the revolt at the municipality; but Barère, Billaud Varennes, and Collot d'Herbois, were in the ranks of the victorious party, and, though the worst of the whole, suffered at that time no 120. Th. punishment for their crimes. The whole theatres of Paris were open, as usual, during these scenes of horror, as they had been during the whole continuance of the Reign of Terror.1* Aug. 24, p. 1380. Thus terminated the Reign of Terror" the only series * Theatres open on the 9th Thermidor, viz. :— 1. Opéra. Armide, avec le ballet de Télémaque. 2. Opéra Comique. La Mélomanie. 3. Théâtre de la République. La Conspiration pour la Liberté. 4. Théâtre Feydeau. Roméo et Juliette. 5. Théâtre de l'Egalité, Section Marat. Guillaume Tell. 6. Théâtre de la Montagne. Jardin de l'Egalité. 7. Théatre des Sans-culottes. Ci-devant Molière. 8. Théâtre Lyrique des Amis de la Patrie. La Revoir. 9. Théâtre du Vaudeville. Fête de l'Eaglité. 10. Théâtre de la Cité. Le Combat des Thermopyles. 11. Théâtre du Lycée des Arts. Jardin de l'Egalité. 12. Amphithéatre d'Astley, Faubourg du Temple. La Fête Civique. Immediately before this is a list of forty-five persons executed the same day. It is the same throughout the whole of the Reign of Terror.-See Moniteur, 27th July 1794, (9 Thermidor.) |