470

THE HEBERTISTES EXTERMINATED. [CHAP. LVI. Justice, the new name for Terror; which, however, was not adopted.

2

It is probable that Robespierre had patronized for a while the Party of Clemency only that he might the more securely overwhelm that of the Hébertistes. The contest, however, was initiated by the Cordelier Club, then, as we have said, under the influence of Hébert and Collot d'Herbois, by sending several insolent deputations to the Convention. Robespierre, by defending Camille Desmoulins, seemed to have incurred the dangerous charge of modérantisme. He explained and defended his views in his Report on the principles of the Revolutionary Government, presented to the Convention in the name of the Committee of Public Welfare, December 25th, 1793. He there described the course of the Government as lying between two extremes, weakness and modérantisme on the one hand, rashness and excess on the other; and he evidently hinted at the denunciation of Hébert and Baron Clootz. But at this time he had begun to quail under the attacks of Hébert and the Cordeliers. He publicly denied having taken any part in Camille Desmoulins' journal, and even proposed that it should be burnt. He also turned upon his former coadjutor, Fabre d'Eglantine, who was placed in confinement. And to show that the charge of modérantisme, or clemency, was an unjust imputation, he concluded by proposing a decree for accelerating the judgment of foreigners and generals charged with crimes like those of Dumouriez, Custine, Lamarlière, and Houchard.

The Hébertistes thought of trying their strength by an insurrection. They took occasion of the distress produced by the severe winter to spread pamphlets, attributing to the Convention all the miseries of Paris; but they failed in their attempt to excite the Commune, and consequently to raise the mob. The proletaries now looked up exclusively to the Committee of Public Welfare; among the citizens of a better class there was but one voice of scorn and horror for Hébert and his companions; while at the decisive moment, Henriot, the military leader of the Commune,

1 M. Blanc, a partisan of Robespierre quand même, thinks that the views of the party of clemency were altogether unseasonable. and absurd-that they de manded for the régime of liberty militant what was only suitable for that of liberty victorious. Hist. de la Rév. Fr. t. x. p. 230; cf. p. 206. It was right, therefore, that the executions should go on.

2 See Hist. Parl. t. xxx. p. 458 sqq.

3 "L'ami des rois et le procureur géné ral du genre humain s'entendent assez bien. Le fanatique couvert de scapulaires et le fanatique qui préche l'athéisme ont entre eux beaucoup de rapports. Les barons démocrates sont les frères des marquis de Coblenz."-Ibid. p. 461.

CHAP. LVI.]

DANTON AND OTHERS EXECUTED.

471

went over to Robespierre. On the night of March 13th, 1794, after a speech by St. Just in the Convention, Hébert, and the leaders of his party, Chaumette, Vincent, Clootz, Ronsin, and others, were arrested. Their trial, which lasted three days, was, like the others of that epoch, a mere parody of justice; but though the charges brought against them were futile, most of them richly deserved their fate. They were executed, March 24th, to the number of nineteen. Hébert died like a coward. Their execution was followed by considerable changes. The Commune was reconstructed; Pache, the Mayor, was replaced by Lescot Fleuriot; the revolutionary army was disbanded; and the Cordelier Club was broken up.

The Dantonists were the next victims. Danton had been troublesome by demanding an examination of the conduct of public functionaries, and that the Committees should give an account of their acts. As if a Government which had declared itself revolutionary, that is irresponsible, was to be questioned ! Tallien brought about an interview between Robespierre and Danton, in which the latter is said to have shed tears. On the very same day that Robespierre had determined on his death, he took Danton in his carriage for an excursion beyond the barriers!2 Camille Desmoulins was included in the proscription. It is probable that he owed his fate to the spite of St. Just. He had said of that demagogue, who wore a very stiff cravat, "that he carried his head with respect, like the holy sacrament;" on which St. Just is said to have observed: "And I will make him carry his like a St. Denis." On the night of March 30th, Danton, Desmoulins, Phillippeaux, and Lacroix were arrested, after a deliberation of the two Committees united. Legendre next day demanded that they should be tried at the bar of the Convention. Robespierre opposed this in a speech in which he described Danton as a "pretended idol long since rotten;" when Legendre stuttered out some cowardly excuses. St. Just gave them the coup de grâce in an harangue in which he had the effrontery to say that he denounced them as the last partisans of royalty! Chabot, Bazire, Fabre d'Eglantine, Delaunay, Julien (of Toulouse), were also at this time prisoners at the Luxembourg, on a charge of forgery, and they were tried with the Dantonists, April 2nd; also Hérault de Séchelles and Westermann. Danton bellowed out his defence, so that his voice was audible on the other side of the Seine. But it was to no purpose; the prisoners were of 1 Levasseur, Mém. t. iii. p. 40. 2 Von Sybel, vol. iii. 296 (Eng. Tr.).

472

TRIUMPH OF ROBESPIERRE.

[CHAP. LVI. course foredoomed. The trial was stopped on the fourth day, and the jury brought in a verdict of guilty, though not a fourth part of the prisoners had been heard in their defence. From their violence, and the symptoms displayed by the audience, the Court was afraid to pass sentence on the accused at the bar; it was read to them by their jailer. They were guillotined April 5th. Camille Desmoulins, almost in a state of madness, tore his clothes to pieces in the cart, and was almost naked when he arrived at the scaffold. He cried to the people that they were deceived; but Danton told him to be quiet and leave that vile canaille alone. Danton, during his imprisonment, had said of the Committee of Public Welfare that they were all Cain's brethren-that Brissot would have guillotined him as Robespierre had done. "What proves Robespierre a Nero," he remarked, "was, that he had never spoken to Camille Desmoulins with so much friendship as on the eve of his arrest."1

By the defeat of the two factions of Dantonists and Hébertistes, the Committee of Public Welfare seemed to have acquired irresistible power. The triumph of Robespierre was complete. The Convention decreed the dissolution of the Ministerial Council, and the formation in its stead of twelve Committees, for the discharge of the various functions of government. Robespierre filled these boards with obscure persons. The Municipality was also reformed, and the posts in it distributed according to Robespierre's bidding. The tribunals of the Departments were suppressed, and that of Paris became the sole one. Society was to be reorganized, and every individual brought under the immediate control of Government. But in this plenitude of power Robespierre trembled for his existence. The members of the governing Committee looked upon one another with hatred and suspicion, as if each were plotting against his colleague's life, whilst all were regarded by moderate people with abhorrence. A strong body of men slept in Robespierre's house, and, armed with clubs, accompanied him in his walks. At meals, two pistols were placed by his plate, and he ate nothing that had not been previously tasted. To show that the Government could not be charged with modérantisme, the executions kept their usual course. Good and bad were involved in a like fate. Among the victims of this period may be mentioned Dépresmenil, Le Chapelier, the venerable Malesherbes, Lavoisier the chemist, General Dillon, Chaumette, Gobel, the apostate bishop. The execution of ' L. Blanc, t. x. p. 369.

2 Von Sybel, vol. iii. p. 299 (Eng. Tr.).

CHAP. LVI.]

FETE OF THE SUPREME BEING.

473

numbers of women outdoes the other brutalities of the Reign of Terror. The wives of Danton and Camille Desmoulins, the Princess Elizabeth, the meek and saint-like sister of Louis XVI., were sent to the scaffold. Robespierre is said to have told Maret, the bookseller, that he had wished to save Madame Elizabeth, but that Collot d'Herbois prevented it.' The latter, who had been an unsuccessful actor and indifferent writer, was the only one of Hébert's faction who had obtained a seat in the Committee of Public Welfare.

Robespierre, having triumphed over the Atheists, proceeded to establish the existence of a Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul by a decree of the Convention! (18th Floréal, May 7th, 1794). It was not, however, the God of the Scriptures, but the God of Reason, substituted for the Goddess of Reason. The new Calendar was retained, by which Sundays were abolished, and, in their stead, every tenth day was set apart for worship. A fête, planned by David the painter, was got up in honour of the new Deity, intended to outrival that of the Hébertistes (June 8th). An amphitheatre was erected in the gardens of the Tuileries, with seats for the members of the Convention, whilst over the basin was erected a group of monsters representing Atheism, Egotism, Discord, and Ambition. Robespierre, who might himself be called the incarnation of the last three, caused himself to be named President of the Assembly for the occasion, and dressed himself in a sky-blue coat. After a speech to the members, whom he had kept waiting some hours, he proceeded to set fire to the monsters, when, after their destruction, the figure of Wisdom was to appear in the midst; unfortunately, however, the flames caught its veil, and the statue appeared in a very blackened condition! The members of the Convention then walked in procession to the Champ de Mars, dressed in the uniform of representatives en mission, with feathers in their hats, and a three-coloured sash. In the midst of them was an antique car, drawn by eight oxen with gilt horns, and carrying a trophy composed of instruments of art. Robespierre, as President, marched at the head of the deputies; his colleagues in the Committees kept as far behind him as they could, in order, it is said, to make his position appear the more invidious; for they had already resolved on his destruction. In the centre of the Champ de Mars rose a symbolical L. Blanc, Hist. de la Révol. Fr. t. x.

1 Beaulieu, Essais histor. sur la Révol. t. vi. p. 10 note.

p. 458.

474

LAW OF 22ND PRAIRIAL.

[CHAP. LVI. mountain, on which the deputies took their seats, and a hymn to the Supreme Being was sung, composed by the same Marie Joseph Chénier, whose facile muse had a little while before celebrated the triumph of atheism. The spectacle, we are told, was one of inconceivable grandeur, and we may readily believe that there was considerable scenic effect. Robespierre was at the height of his glory. His customary morosity seemed to have vanished: never had he been observed so radiant. But there were not wanting those who, like the slave in the Roman triumph, audibly whispered some discomforting doubts. "Is he not the chief priest? See, it is not enough to be master, he must be a god as well! There may, however, still be a Brutus!" Among the foremost to insult him were Bourdon de l'Oise and Merlin de Thionville. Robespierre, so exulting in the morning, returned to his lodgings, at Duplay's, alarmed and dejected.*

St. Just had also given offence by his haughtiness; he had had a violent quarrel with Carnot, and a complete schism had taken place in the Committee of Public Welfare. Robespierre, St. Just, and Couthon now stood alone. The treatment Robespierre had met with at the fête determined him to strike the terrorists of the Committee of General Safety, and the Commissaries of the Convention who had rendered themselves notorious by their cruelties, such as Fouché, Fréron, Tallien, Carrier. With this view he introduced the terrible law called the "Law of 22nd Prairial" (June 10th), intended to accelerate the trial of the conspirators. By this law the Revolutionary Tribunal was again re-formed. It was now to consist of a president, three vicepresidents, a public accuser and four substitutes, twelve judges, and fifty jurymen; and for practice it was to be divided into sections of twelve members, each section having not fewer than seven jurors. Its object was said to be to punish the enemies of the people; in which category were included those who had sought to create dearth, to inspire discouragement, to spread false news, to mislead public opinion, to corrupt the public conscience, to alter the energy and purity of revolutionary and republican principles, &c. &c. In short, it was a net to catch all fish. The accused were not to be allowed counsel; it was not necessary to call witnesses; the decision was left to the conscience of jurymen enlightened by the love of their country." There was no appeal, and the sole punishment was death! By 1 André Chénier, his brother, also a Esquiros, Hist. des Montagnards, ap. poet, and a much better one, was guil- Blanc, t. x. p. 459. lotined July 25th.

2