VIII. Delirium.

Approach of madness.—Loss of common-sense.—Fabre, Gaston, Guiter, in the army of the Eastern Pyrenees.—Baudot, Lebas, Saint-Just, and the predecessors and successors in the army of the Rhine.—Furious excitement.—Lebon at Arras, and Carrier at Nantes.

If intoxication is needed to awaken the brute, a dictatorship suffices to arouse the madman. The mental equilibrium of most of these new sovereigns is disturbed; the distance between what the man once was and what he now is, is too great. Formerly he was a petty lawyer, village doctor, or schoolmaster, an unknown mover of a resolution in a local club, and only yesterday he was one voter in the Convention out of seven hundred and fifty. Look at him now, the arbiter, in one of the departments, of all fortunes and liberties, and master of five thousand lives. Like a pair of scales into which a disproportionate weight has been thrown, his reason totters on the side of pride. Some of them regard their competency unlimited, like their powers, and having just joined the army, claim the right of being appointed major-generals.[32112] "Declare officially," writes Fabre to the Committee of Public Safety,[32113] "that, in future, generals shall be simply the lieutenants of the delegates to the Convention." Awaiting the required declaration, they claim command and, in reality, exercise it. "I know of neither generals nor privates," says Gaston, a former justice of the peace, to the officers; "as to the Minister, he is like a bull in a china shop; I am in command here and must be obeyed." "What are generals good for?" adds his colleague Guiter; "the old women in our faubourgs know as much as they do. Plans, formal maneuvers, tents, camps, redoubts? All this is of no use! The only war suitable to Frenchmen after this will be a rush with side arms." To turn out of office, guillotine, disorganize, march blindly on, waste lives haphazard, force defeat, sometimes get killed themselves, is all they know, and they would lose all if the effects of their incapacity and arrogance were not redeemed by the devotion of the officers and the enthusiasm of the soldiers.—The same spectacle is visible at Charleroy where, through his absurd orders, Saint-Just does his best to compromise the army, leaving that place with the belief that he is a great man.[32114]—There is the same spectacle in Alsace, where Lacoste, Baudot, Ruamps, Soubrany, Muhaud, Saint-Just and Lebas, through their excessive rigor, do their best to break up the army and then boast of it. The revolutionary Tribunal is installed at headquarters, soldiers are urged to denounce their officers, the informer is promised money and secrecy, he and the accused are not allowed to confront each other, no investigation, no papers allowed, even to make exception to the verdict—a simple examination without any notes, the accused arrested at eight o'clock, condemned at nine o'clock, and shot at ten o'clock.[32115]

Naturally, under such a system, no one wants to command; already, before Saint Just's arrival, Meunier had consented to act as Major-General only ad interim; "every hour of the day" he demanded his removal; unable to secure this, he refused to issue any order. The representatives, to procure his successor, are obliged to descend down to a depot captain, Carlin, bold enough or stupid enough to allow himself to take a commission under their lead, which was a commission for the guillotine.—If such is their presumption in military matters, what must it be in civil affairs! On this side there is no external check, no Spanish or German army capable of at once taking them in flagrante delicto, and of profiting by their ambitious incapacity and mischievous interference. Whatever the social instrumentality may be—judiciary, administration, credit, commerce, manufactures, agriculture—they can dislocate and destroy it with impunity.—They never fail to do this, and, moreover, in their dispatches, they take credit to themselves for the ruin they cause. That, indeed, is their mission; otherwise, they would be regarded as bad Jacobins; they would soon become "suspects;" they rule only on condition of being infatuated and destructive; the overthrow of common-sense is with them an act of State grace, a necessity of the office, and, on this common ground of compulsory unreason, every species of physical delirium may be set established.

With those that we can follow closely, not only is their judgment perverted, but the entire nervous apparatus is affected; a permanent over-excitement and a morbid restlessness has begun.—Consider Joseph Lebon, son of a sergeant-at-arms, subsequently, a teacher with the Oratoriens of Beaune, next, cure of Neuville-Vitasse, repudiated as an interloper by the elite of his parishioners, not respected, without house or furniture, and almost without a flock.[32116] Two years after this, finding himself sovereign of his province, his head is spinning. Lesser events would have made it turn; his is only a twenty-eight-year-old head, not very solid, without any inside ballast,[32117] already disturbed by vanity, ambition, rancor, and apostasy, by the sudden and complete volteface which puts him in conflict with his past educational habits and most cherished affections: it breaks down under the vastness and novelty of this greatness.—In the costume of a representative, a Henry IV hat, tri-color plume, waving scarf, and saber dragging the ground, Lebon orders the bell to be rung and summons the villagers into the church, where, aloft in the pulpit in which he had formerly preached in a threadbare cassock, he displays his metamorphosis.

"Who would believe that I should have returned here with unlimited powers!"[32118]

And that, before his counterfeit majesty, each person would be humble, bowed down and silent! To a member of the municipality of Cambray who, questioned by him, looked straight at him and answered curtly, and who, to a query twice repeated in the same terms, dared to answer twice in the same terms, he says:

"Shut up! You disrespect me, you do not behave properly to the national representative."

He immediately commits him to prison.[32119]—One evening, at the theater, he enters a box in which the ladies, seated in front, keep their places. In a rage, he goes out, rushes on the stage and, brandishing his great saber, shouts and threatens the audience, taking immense strides across the boards and acting and looking so much like a wild beast that several of the ladies faint away:

"Look there!" he shouts, at those muscadines who do not condescend to move for a representative of twenty-five millions of men! Everybody used to make way for a prince—they will not budge for me, a representative, who am more than a king!"[32120]

The word is spoken. But this king is frightened, and he is one who thinks of nothing but conspiracy;[32121] in the street, in open daylight, the people who are passing him are plotting against him either by words or signs. Meeting in the main street of Arras a young girl and her mother talking Flemish,—that seems to him "suspect." "Where are you going?" he demands. "What's that to you?" replies the child, who does not know him. The girl, the mother and the father are sent to prison.[32122]—On the ramparts, another young girl, accompanied by her mother, is taking the air, and reading a book. "Give me that book," says the representative. The mother hands it to him; it is the "History of Clarissa Harlowe." The young girl, extending her hand to receive back the book, adds, undoubtedly with a smile: "That is not 'suspect.'" Lebon deals her a blow with his fist on her stomach which knocks her down; both women are searched and he personally leads them to the guard-room.—The slightest expression, a gesture, puts him beside himself; any motion that he does not comprehend makes him start, as with an electric shock. Just arrived at Cambray, he is informed that a woman who had sold a bottle of wine below the maximum, had been released after a proces-verbal. On reaching the Hotel-de-ville, he shouts out: "Let everybody here pass into the Consistory!" The municipal officer on duty opens a door leading into it. Lebon, however, not knowing who he is, takes alarm. "He froths at the mouth," says the municipal officer, "and cries out as if possessed by a demon. 'Stop, stop, scoundrel, you are running off!' He draws his saber and seizes me by the collar; I am dragged and borne along by him and his men. 'I have hold of him, I have hold of him!' he exclaims, and, indeed, he did hold me with his teeth, legs, and arms, like a madman. At last, 'scoundrel, monster, bastard,' says he, 'are you a marquis?' 'No,' I replied, 'I am a sans-culotte.' 'Ah, well people, you hear what he says,' he exclaims, 'he says that he is a sans-culotte, and that is the way he greets a denunciation on the maximum! I remove him. Let him be kicked in prison!'"[32123] It is certain that the King of Arras and Cambray is not far from a raging fever; with such symptoms an ordinary individual would be sent to an asylum.

Not so vain, less fond of parading his royalty, but more savage and placed in Nantes amidst greater dangers, Carrier, under the pressure of more somber ideas, is much more furious and constant in his madness. Sometimes his attacks reach hallucination. "I have seen him," says a witness, "so carried away in the tribune, in the heat of his harangue when trying to overrule public opinion, as to cut off the tops of the candles with his saber," as if they were so many aristocrats' heads.[32124] Another time, at table, after having declared that France could not feed its too numerous population, and that it was decided to cut down the excess, all nobles, magistrates, priests, merchants, etc., he becomes excited and exclaims, "Kill, kill!" as if he were already engaged in the work and ordering the operation.[32125] Even when fasting, and in an ordinary condition, he is scarcely more cooled down. When the administrators of the department come to consult with him,[32126] they gather around the door to see if he looks enraged, and is in a condition to hear them. He not only insults petitioners, but likewise the functionaries under him who make reports to him, or take his orders; his foul nature rises to his lips and overflows in the vilest terms:

"Go to hell and be damned. I have no time."[32127]

They consider themselves lucky if they get off with a volley of obscene oaths, for he generally draws his saber:

"The first bastard that mentions supplies, I will cut his head off."[32128]

And to the president of the military commission, who demands that verdicts be rendered before ordering executions:

"You, you old rascal, you old bastard, you want verdicts, do you! Go ahead! If the whole pen is not emptied in a couple of hours I will have you and your colleagues shot!"

His gestures, his look have such a powerful effect upon the mind that the other, who is also a "bruiser," dies of the shock a few days after.[32129] Not only does he draw his saber, but he uses it; among the petitioners, a boatman, whom he is about to strike, runs off as fast as he can; he draws General Moulins into the recess of a window and gives him a cut.[32130]—People "tremble" on accosting him, and yet more in contradicting him. The envoy of the Committee of Public Safety, Julien de la Drome, on being brought before him, takes care to "stand some distance off, in a corner of the room," wisely trying to avoid the first spring; wiser still, he replies to Carrier's exclamations with the only available argument:

"If you put me out of the way to-day, you yourself will be guillotined within a week!"[32131]

On coming to a stand before a mad dog one must aim the knife straight at its throat; there is no other way to escape its fangs and slaver. Accordingly, with Carrier, as with a mad dog, the brain is mastered by the steady mechanical reverie, by persistent images of murder and death. He exclaims to President Tronjolly, apropos of the Vendean children:

"The guillotine, always the guillotine!"[32132]

In relation to the drownings:

"You judges must have verdicts; pitch them into the water, which is much more simple."

Addressing the popular club of Nantes, he says:

"The rich, the merchants, are all monopolizers, all anti-revolutionists; denounce them to me, and I will have all their heads under the national razor. Tell me who the fanatics are that shut their shops on Sunday and I will have them guillotined." "When will the heads of those rascally merchants fall?"—"I see beggars here in rags; you are as big fools at Ancenis as at Nantes. Don't you know that the money, the wealth of these old merchants, belongs to you, and is not the river there?" "My brave bastards, my good sansculottes your time is come! Denounce them to me! The evidence of two good sans-culottes is all I want to make the heads of those old merchants tumble!"—"We will make France a grave-yard rather than not regenerate it in our own way."[32133]—His steady howl ends in a cry of anguish:

"We shall all be guillotined, one after the other!"[32134]—

Such is the mental state to which the office of representative on mission leads. Below Carrier, who is on the extreme verge, the others, less advanced, likewise turn pale at the lugubrious vision, which is the inevitable effect of their work and their mandate. Beyond every grave they dig, they catch a glimpse of the grave already dug for them. There is nothing left for the gravedigger but to dig mechanically day after day, and, in the meantime, make what he can out of his place; he can at least render himself insensible by having "a good time."



IX. Vice.

The development of vice.—Vanity and the need of gambling.— Collot d'Herbois, Ysabeau, Tallien.—The Robbers.—Tallien, Javogues, Rovere, Fouche.—Two sources of cruelty.—Need of demonstrating one's power.—Saint-Just in the Pas-de-Calais department, and in Alsace.—Collot d'Herbois at Lyons.— Pressure exercised by the Representatives on the tribunals. —Pleasure caused by death and suffering.—Monestier, Fouche, Collot d'Herbois, Lebon and Carrier.

Most of them follow this course, some instinctively and through lassitude, and others because the display they make adds to their authority. "Dragged along in Carriages with six horses, surrounded by guards, seated at sumptuous tables set for thirty persons, eating to the sound of music along with a Cortege of actors, courtesans and praetorians,"[32135] they impress the imagination with an idea of their omnipotence, and people bow all the lower because they make a grand show.—At Troyes, on the arrival of young Rousselin, cannon are discharged as if for the entry of a prince. The entire population of Nevers is called upon to honor the birth of Fouche's child; the civil and military authorities pay their respects to him, and the National Guards are under arms.[32136] At Lyons, "The imposing display of Collot d'Herbois resembles that of the Grand Turk. It requires three successive applications to obtain an audience; nobody approaches nearer than a distance of fifteen feet; two sentinels with muskets stand on each side of him, with their eyes fixed on the petitioners."[32137]—Less menacing, but not less imposing, is the pomp which surrounds the representatives at Bordeaux; to approach them, requires "a pass from the captain of the guards,"[32138] through several squads of sentinels. One of them, Ysabeau, who, after having guillotined to a considerable extent, has become almost tractable, allows adulation, and, like a Duc de Richelieu coming down from Versailles, tries to play the popular potentate, with all the luxuries which the situation affords. At the theaters, in his presence, they give a ballet in which shepherds form with garlands of flowers the words "Ysabeau, Liberty, Equality." He allows his portrait to pass from hand to hand, and condescendingly smiles on the artist who inscribes these words at the bottom of an engraving of the day: "An event which took place under Ysabeau, representative of the people." "When he passes in the street people take off their hats to him, cheer him, and shout 'Hurrah for Ysabeau! Hurrah for the savior of Bordeaux, our friend and father!' The children of aristocrats come and apostrophize him in this way, even at the doors of his carriage; for he has a Carriage, and several of them, with a coachman, horses, and the equipage of a former noble, gendarmes preceding him everywhere, even on excursions into the country," where his new courtiers call him "great man," and welcome him with "Asiatic magnificence." There is good cheer at his table, "superb white bread," called "representatives' bread," whilst the country folk of the neighborhood live on roots, and the inhabitants of Bordeaux can scarcely obtain more than four ounces of musty bread per day.—There is the same feasting with the representatives at Lyons, in the midst of similar distress. In the reports made by Collot we find a list of bottles of brandy at four francs each, along with partridges, capons, turkeys, chickens, pike, and crawfish, note also the white bread, the other kind, called "equality bread," assigned to simple mortals, offends this august palate. Add to this the requisitions made by Albitte and Fouche, seven hundred bottles of fine wine, in one lot, another of fifty pounds of coffee, one hundred and sixty ells of muslin, three dozen silk handkerchiefs for cravats, three dozen pairs of gloves, and four dozen pairs of stockings: they provide themselves with a good stock.[32139]—Among so many itinerant tyrants, the most audaciously sensual is, I believe, Tallien, the Septembriseur at Paris and guillotineur at Bordeaux, but still more rake and robber, caring mostly for his palate and stomach. Son of the cook of a grand seignior, he is doubtless swayed by family traditions: for his government is simply a larder where, like the head-butler in "Gil Blas," he can eat and turn the rest into money. At this moment, his principal favorite is Teresa Cabarrus, a woman of society, or one of the demi-monde, whom he took out of prison; he rides about the streets with her in an open carriage, "with a courier behind and a courier in front," sometimes wearing the red cap and holding a pike in her hand,[32140] thus exhibiting his goddess to the people. And this is the sentiment which does him the most credit; for, when the crisis comes, the imminent peril of his mistress arouses his courage against Robespierre, and this pretty woman, who is good-natured, begs him, not for murders, but for pardons.[32141]—Others, as gallant as he is, but with less taste, obtain recruits for their pleasures in a rude way, either as fast-livers on the wing, or because fear subjects the honor of women to their caprices, or because the public funds defray the expenses of their guard-room habits. At Blois, for this kind of expenditure, Guimberteau discharges his obligations by drafts on the proceeds of the revolutionary tax.[32142] Carrier, at Nantes, appropriates to himself the house and garden of a private person for "his seraglio"; the reader may judge whether, on desiring to be a third party in the household, the husband would make objections. At other times, in the hotel Henry IV., "with his friends and prostitutes brought under requisition, he has an orgy;" he allows himself the same indulgence on the galiot during the drownings; there at the end of a drunken frolic, he is regaled with merry songs, for example, "la gamelle":[32143] he needs his amusements.

Some, who are shrewd, think of the more substantial and look out for the future. Foremost among these is Tallien, the king of robbers, but prodigal, whose pockets, full of holes, are only filled to be at once emptied; Javogues, who makes the most of Montbrison; Rovere, who, for eighty thousand francs in assignats, has an estate adjudged to him worth five hundred thousand francs in coin; Fouche, who, in Nievre, begins to amass the twelve or fourteen millions which he secures later on;[32144] and so many others, who were either ruined or impoverished previous to the outbreak of the Revolution, and who are rich when it ends: Barras with his domain of Gros Bois; Andre Dumont, with the Hotel de Plouy, its magnificent furniture, and an estate worth four hundred thousand livres; Merlin de Thionville, with his country-houses, equipages, and domain of Mont-Valerien, and other domains; Salicetti, Reubell, Rousselin, Chateauneuf-Randon, and the rest of the gluttonous and corrupted members of the Directory. Without mentioning the taxes and confiscations of which they render no account, they have, for their hoard, the ransoms offered underhandedly by "suspects" and their families; what is more convenient?[32145] And all the more, because the Committee of General Security, even when informed, let things take their course: to prosecute "Montagnards," would be "making the Revolution take a step backward." One is bound to humor useful servants who have such hard work, like that of the September killings, to do. Irregularities, as with these September people, must be overlooked; it is necessary to allow them a few perquisites and give them gratuities.[32146]

All this would not suffice to keep them at work if they had not been held by an even greater attraction.—To the common run of civilized men, the office of Septembriseur is at first disagreeable; but, after a little practice, especially with a tyrannical nature, which, under cover of the theory, or under the pretext of public safety, can satiate its despotic instincts, all repugnance subsides. There is keen delight in the exercise of absolute power; one is glad, every hour, to assert one's omnipotence and prove it by some act, the most conclusive of all acts being some act of destruction. The more complete, radical and prompt the destruction is, the more conscious one is of one's strength. However great the obstacle, one is not disposed to recede or stand still; one breaks away all the barriers which men call good sense, humanity, justice, and the satisfaction of breaking them down is great. To crush and to subdue becomes voluptuous pleasure, to which pride gives keener relish, affording a grateful incense of the holocaust which the despot consumes on his own altar; at this daily sacrifice, he is both idol and priest, offering up victims to himself that he may be conscious of his divinity.—Such is Saint-Just, all the more a despot because his title of representative on mission is supported by his rank on the Committee of Public Safety: to find natures strained to the same pitch as his, we must leave the modern world and go back to a Caligula, or to a caliph Hakem in Egypt in the tenth century.[32147] He also, like these two monsters, but with different formulae, regards himself as a God, or God's vicegerent on earth, invested with absolute power through Truth incarnated in him, the representative of a mysterious, limitless and supreme power, known as the People; to worthily represent this power, it is essential to have a soul of steel.[32148] Such is the soul of Saint-Just, and only that. All other sentiments merely serve to harden it; all the metallic agencies that compose it—sensuality, vanity, every vice, every species of ambition, all the frantic outbursts and melancholy vaporings of his youth—are violently commingled and fused together in the revolutionary mold, so that his soul may take the form and rigidity of trenchant steel. Suppose this an animated blade, feeling and willing in conformity with its temper and structure; it would delight in being brandished, and would need to strike; such is the need of Saint-Just. Taciturn, impassible, keeping people at a distance, as imperious as if the entire will of the people and the majesty of transcendent reason resided in his person, he seems to have reduced his passions to the desire of dashing everything to atoms, and to creating dismay. It may be said of him that, like the conquering Tartars, he measures his self-attributed grandeur by what he fells; no other has so extensively swept away fortunes, liberties and lives; no other has so terrifically heightened the effect of his deeds by laconic speech and the suddenness of the stroke. He orders the arrest and close confinement of all former nobles, men and women, in the four departments, in twenty-four hours; he orders the bourgeoisie of Strasbourg to pay over nine millions in twenty-four hours; ten thousand persons in Strasbourg must give up their shoes in twenty-four hours; random and immediate discharges of musketry on the officers of the Rhine army—such are the measures.[32149] So much the worse for the innocent; there is no time to discern who they are; "a blind man hunting for a pin in a dust-heap takes the whole heap."[32150]—And, whatever the order, even when it cannot be executed, so much the worse for him to whom it is given, for the captain who, directed by the representative to establish this or that battery in a certain time, works all night with all his forces, "with as many men as the place will hold."[32151] The battery not being ready at the hour named, Saint-Just sends the captain to the guillotine.—The sovereign having once given an order it cannot be countermanded; to take back his words would be weakening himself;[32152] in the service of omnipotence, pride is insatiable, and, to mollify it, no barbaric act is too great.—The same appetite is visible in Collot d'Herbois, who, no longer on the stage, plays before the town the melo-dramatic tyrant with all becoming ostentation. One morning, at Lyons, he directs the revolutionary Tribunal to arrest, examine and sentence a youthful "suspect" before the day is over. "Towards six o'clock,[32153] Collot being at table enjoying an orgy with prostitutes, buffoons and executioners, eating and drinking to choice music, one of the judges of the Tribunal enters; after the usual formalities, he is led up to the Representative, and informs him that the young man had been arrested and examined, and the strictest inquiries made concerning him; he is found irreproachable and the Court decided to set him free. Collot, without looking at the judge, raises his voice and says to him:

"I ordered you to punish that young man and I want him out of the way before night. If the innocent are spared, too many of the guilty will escape. Go."

The music and gaiety begin again, and in an hour the young man is shot."—And so in most of the other pachalics; if any head mentally condemned by the pacha escapes or does not fall soon enough, the latter is indignant at the delays and forms of justice, also against the judges and juries, often selected by himself. Javogues writes an insulting letter to the commission of Feurs which has dared acquit two former nobles. Laignelot, Lecarpentier, Michaud, Monestier, Lebon, dismiss, recompose, or replace the commissions of Fontenoy, Saint-Malo, and Perpignan, and the tribunals of Pau, Nimes, and Arras, whose judgments did not please them.[32154] Lebon, Bernard de Saintes, Dartigoyte and Fouche re-arrest prisoners on the same charge, solemnly acquitted by their own tribunals. Bo, Prieur de la Marne, and Lebon, send judges and juries to prison that do not always vote death.[32155] Barras and Freron dispatch, from brigade to brigade, to the revolutionary Tribunal in Paris, the public prosecutor and president of the revolutionary Tribunal of Marseilles, for being indulgent to anti-revolutionaries, because, out of five hundred and twenty-eight prisoners, they guillotined only one hundred and sixty-two.[32156]—To contradict the infallible Representative! That of itself is an offense. He owes it to himself to punish those who are not docile, to re-arrest absolved delinquents, and to support cruelty with cruelty.

When for a long time someone has been imbibing a strong and nauseating drink, not only does the palate get accustomed, but it often acquires a taste for it; it soon wants to have it stronger; finally, it swallows it pure, completely raw, with no admixture or condiment to disguise its repulsiveness—Such, to certain imaginations, is the spectacle of human gore; after getting accustomed to it they take delight in seeing it. Lequinio, Laignelot and Lebon invite the executioner to dine with them;[32157] Monestier, "with his cut-throats, is going himself in search of prisoners in the dungeons, so that he may accompany them to the Tribunal and overwhelm them with charges, if they are disposed to defend themselves; after their condemnation, he attends in uniform" at their execution.[32158] Fouche, lorgnette in hand, looks out of his window upon a butchery of two hundred and ten Lyonnese. Collot, Laporte and Fouche feast together in a large company on the days when executions by shooting takes place, and, at each discharge, stand up and cheer lustily, waving their hats.[32159] At Toulon, Freron, in person, orders and sees executed, the first grand massacre on the Champ de Mars.[32160]—On the Place d'Arras, M. de Vielfort, already tied and stretched out on the plank, awaits the fall of the knife. Lebon appears on the balcony of the theatre, makes a sign to the executioner to stop, opens the newspaper, and, in a loud voice, reads off the recent successes of the French armies; then, turning to the condemned man, exclaims: "Go, wretch, and take the news of our victories to your brethren."[32161] At Feurs, where the shootings take place at the house of M. du Rosier, in the great avenue of the park, his daughter, quite a young woman, advances in tears to Javogues, and asks for the release of her husband. "Oh, yes, my dear," replies Javogues, "you shall have him home to-morrow." In effect, the next day, her husband is shot, and buried in the avenue.[32162]—It is evident that they get to liking the business. Like their September predecessors, they find amusement in murdering: people around them allude gaily to "the red theater" and "the national razor." An aristocrat is said to be "putting his head at the national window," and "he has put his head through the cathole."[32163] They themselves have the style and humor of their trade. "To-morrow, at seven o'clock," writes Hugues, "let the sacred guillotine be erected!"—"The demoiselle guillotine," writes Lecarlier, "keeps steadily agoing."[32164]—"The relatives and friends of emigres and of refractory priests," writes Lebon, "monopolize the guillotine.. .[32165] Day before yesterday, the sister of the former Comte de Bethune sneezed in the sack." Carrier loudly proclaims "the pleasure he has derived" from seeing priests executed: "I never laughed in my life as I did at the faces they made in dying."[32166] This is the extreme perversity of human nature, that of a Domitian who watches the features of the condemned, to see the effect of suffering, or, better still, that of the savage who holds his sides with laughter at the aspect of a man being impaled. And this delight of contemplating death throes, Carrier finds it in the sufferings of children. Notwithstanding the remonstrances of the revolutionary Tribunal and the entreaties of President Phelippes-Tronjolly,[32167] he signs on the 29th of Frimaire, year II., a positive order to guillotine without trial twenty-seven persons, of whom seven are women, and, among these, four sisters, Mesdemoiselles de la Metayrie, one of these twenty-eight years old, another twenty-seven, the third twenty-six, and the fourth seventeen. Two days before, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the same tribunal and the entreaties of the same president, he signed a positive order to guillotine twenty-six artisans and farm-hands, among them two boys of fourteen, and two of thirteen years of age. He was driven "in a cab to the place of execution and he followed it up in detail. He could hear one of the children of thirteen, already bound to the board, but too small and having only the top of the head under the knife, ask the executioner, "Will it hurt me much?" What the triangular blade fell upon may be imagined! Carrier saw this with his own eyes, and whilst the executioner, horrified at himself, died a few days after in consequence of what he had done, Carrier put another in his place, began again and continued operations.

*****

[Footnote 3201: Thibaudeau: "Memoires," I., 47, 70.—Durand-Maillane, "Memoires," 183.—Vatel, "Charlotte Corday et les Girondins," II., 269. Out of the seventy-six presidents of the convention eighteen were guillotined, eight deported, twenty-two declared outlaws, six incarcerated, three who committed suicide, and four who became insane, in all sixty-one. All who served twice perished by a violent death.]

[Footnote 3202: Moniteur, XVIII., 38. (Speech by Amar, reporter, Oct. 3. '793.) "The apparently negative behavior of the minority in the convention, since the 2nd of June, is a new plot hatched by Barbaroux."]

[Footnote 3203: Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII., 44. Election of Collot d'Herbois as president by one hundred and fifty-one out of two hundred and forty-one votes, June 13, 1793.-Moniteur, XVII., 366. Election of Herault-Sechelles as president by one hundred and sixty-five out of two hundred and thirty-six votes, Aug. 3, 1793.]

[Footnote 3204: "The Revolution," vol. III., ch. I.—Mortimer-Ternaux, VII., 435. (The three substitutes obtain, the first, nine votes, the second, six votes, and the third, five votes.)]

[Footnote 3205: Marcelin Boudet, "Les conventionnels d' Auvergne," 206.]

[Footnote 3206: Le Marais or the Swamp (moderate party in the French Revolution). SR.]

[Footnote 3207: Dussault: "Fragment pour servir a' l'histoire de la convention."]

[Footnote 3208: Sainte-Beuve "causeries du Lundi," V., 216. (According to the unpublished papers of Sieyes.)]

[Footnote 3209: Words of Michelet.]

[Footnote 3210: Moniteur, XX., 95, 135. (Sessions of Germinal II. in the Convention and at the Jacobin club.)]

[Footnote 3211: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 17. (Sessions of Ventose 26, year II. Speech of Robespierre.) "In what country has a powerful senate ever sought in its own bosom for the betrayers of the common cause and handed them over to the sword of the law? Who has ever furnished the world with this spectacle? You, my fellow citizens."]

[Footnote 3212: Miot de Melito, "Memoires," I. 44. Danton, at table in the ministry of Foreign Affairs, remarked: "The Revolution, like Saturn, eats its own children." As to Camille Desmoulins, "His melancholy already indicated a presentiment of his fate; the few words he allowed to escape him always turned on questions and observations concerning the nature of punishment, inflicted on those condemned by the revolutionary Tribunal and the best way of preparing oneself for that event and enduring it."]

[Footnote 3213: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 363.357. (Police reports on the deputies, Messidor 4, and following days.)—Vilate: "coups secretes de la Revolution du 9 et 10 Thermidor," a list designated by Barere.—Denunciation by Lecointre. (2nd ed. p.13.)]

[Footnote 3214: Thibaudeau, I., 47. "Just as in ordinary times one tries to elevate oneself, so does one strive in these times of calamity to lower oneself and be forgotten, or atone for one's inferiority by seeking to degrade oneself."]

[Footnote 3215: Madame Roland: "Memoires," I., 23.]

[Footnote 3216: Archives Nationales, F.7, 31167. This set of papers contains five hundred and thirty-seven police reports, especially those of Nivose, year II. The following is a sample Report of Nivose 25, year II. "Being on a deputation to the convention, some colleagues took me to dine in the old Breteuil gardens, in a large room with a nice floor.... The bill-of-fare was called for, and I found that after having eaten a ritz soup, some meat, a bottle of wine and two potatoes, I had spent, as they told me, eight francs twelve sous, because I am not rich. 'Foutre!' I say to them how much do the rich pay here?... It is well to state that I saw some deputies come into this large hall, also former marquises, counts and knights of the poniard of the ancient regime... but I confess that I cannot remember the true names of these former nobles.... for the devil himself could not recognize those bastards, disguised like sans-culottes."]

[Footnote 3217: Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 237, 308. (July 5 and 14, 1793.)—Moniteur, XIX., 716. (Ventose 26, year II.) Danton secures the passage of a decree "that nothing but prose shall be heard at the bar." Nevertheless, after his execution, this sort of parade begins again. On the 12th of Messidor, "a citizen admitted to the bar reads a poem composed by him in honor of the success of our arms on the Sambre." (Moniteur, XVI., 101.)]

[Footnote 3218: Moniteur, XVIII. 369, 397, 399, 420, 455, 469, 471, 479, 488, 492, 500, etc.—Mercier, "Le Nouveau Paris," II., 96.—Dauban, "La Demagogie en 1793," 500, 505. (Articles by Prudhomme and Diurnal by Beaulieu.)]

[Footnote 3219: Moniteur, XVIII., 420, 399.—"Ah, le bel oiseau," was a song chosen for its symbolic and double meaning, one pastoral and the other licentious.]

[Footnote 3220: De Goncourt, "La Societe francaise pendant la Revolution," 418. (Article from" Pere Duchesne ".)—Dauban, ibid., 506. (Article by Prud'homme.) "Liberty on a seat of verdure, receives the homage of republicans, male and female,... and then.... she turns and bestows a benevolent regard on her friends."]

[Footnote 3221: Moniteur, XVIII., 399. Session of Brumaire 20, on motion of Thuriot: "I move that the convention attends the temple of Reason to sing the hymn to Liberty."—"The motion of Thuriot is decreed."]

[Footnote 3222: Mercier, ibid., 99. (Similar scenes in the churches of St. Eustache and St. Gervais.)]

[Footnote 3223: Durand-Maillane, '"Memoires," 182.—Gregoire, "Memoires," II., 34. On the 7th of November, 1793, in the great scene of the abjurations, Gregoire alone resisted, declaring: "I remain a bishop; I invoke freedom of worship." "Outcries burst forth to stifle my voice the pitch of which I raised proportionately.... A demoniac scene occurred, worthy of Milton.... I declare that in making this speech I thought I was pronouncing sentence of death on myself." For several days, emissaries were sent to him, either deputies or bandits, to try and make him retract. On the 11th of November a placard posted throughout Paris declared him responsible for the continuance of fanaticism. "For about two years, I was almost the only one in Paris who wore the ecclesiastical costume."]

[Footnote 3224: Moniteur, XVIII., 480. (Session of Brumaire 30.) N...."I must make known the ceremony which took place here to-day. I move that the speeches and details of this day be inserted in full in the bulletin, and sent to all the departments." (Another deputy): "And do not neglect to state that the Right was never so well furnished." (Laughter and applause.)]

[Footnote 3225: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 103. (Germinal 11.)—Moniteur, XX., 124. (Germinal 15.) Decree for cutting short the defense of Danton and his accused associates.]

[Footnote 3226: Moniteur, XX., 226. (Germinal 26. Report by Saint-Just and decree on the police.)—Ibid., XIX., 54. (Report by Robespierre, and decree on the principles of revolutionary government, Nivose 5.)—Ibid., XX., 567, 589. Prairial 6, (Decree forbidding the imprisonment of any Englishman or Hanoverian), and XXI., 13. (Messidor 16.)]

[Footnote 3227: Moniteur, XX., 544. After the effort of L'Admiral against Collot d'Herbois, the latter appears in the tribune. "The loudest applause greets him from all sides of the house."—Ibid., XXI., 173. (Messidor 21.) On the report of Barere who praises the conduct of Joseph Lebon, criticizing nothing but "somewhat harsh formalities," a decree is passed to the order of the day, which is "adopted unanimously with great applause."]

[Footnote 3228: Moniteur, XX., 698, 715, 716, 719. (Prairial 22 and 24.) After the speeches of Robespierre and Couthon "Loud and renewed applause; the plaudits begin over again and are prolonged." Couthon, having declared that the Committee of Public Safety was ready to resign, "on all sides there were cries of No, No."—Ibid., XXI., 268. (Thermidor 2.) Eulogy of the revolutionary government by Barere and decree of the police "unanimously adopted amidst the loudest applause."]

[Footnote 3229: Moniteur, XXI., 329.]

[Footnote 3230: Lafayette, "Memoires," IV., 330. "At last came the 9th of Thermidor. It was not due to people of common sense. Their terror was so great that an estimable deputy, to whom one of his colleagues put the question, no witness being present, 'how long must we endure this tyranny?' was upset by it to such a degree as to denounce him."]

[Footnote 3231: Sainte-Beuve, "Causeries du Lundi," V., 209. (Sieyes' unpublished papers.)—Moniteur, XVIII., 631, containing an example of both the terror and style of the most eminent men, among others of Fourcroy the celebrated chemist, then deputy, and later, Counselor of State and Minister of Public Instruction. He is accused in the Jacobin Club, Brumaire 18, year II., of not addressing the Convention often enough, to which he replies: "After twenty years' devotion to the practice of medicine I have succeeded in supporting my sans-culotte father and my sans-culottes sisters.... As to the charge made by a member that I have given most of my time to science. ... I have attended the Lycee des Arts but three times, and then only for the purpose of sans-culotteising it."]

[Footnote 3232: Michelet, (1798-1874), "Histoire de la Revolution," V., preface XXX (3rd ed.). "When I was young and looking for a job, I was referred to an esteemed Review, to a well-known philanthropist, devoted to education, to the people, and to the welfare of humanity. I found a very small man of a melancholic, mild and tame aspect. We were in front of the fire, on which he fixed his eyes without looking at me. He talked a long time, in a didactic, monotonous tone of voice. I felt ill at ease and sick at heart, and got away as soon as I could. It was this little man, I afterwards learned, who hunted down the Girondists, and had them guillotined, and which he accomplished at the age of twenty."—This man's name was Julien de la Drome. I (Taine) saw him once when quite young. He is well known; first, through his correspondence, and next, by his mother's diary. ("Journal d'une bourgeoise pendant la Revolution," ed. Locroy.)—We have a sketch of David ("La Demagogie a Paris en 1793," by Dauban, a fac-simile at the beginning of the volume), representing Queen Marie Antoinette led to execution. Madame Julien was at a window along with David looking at the funeral convoy, whilst he made the drawing.—Madame Julien writes in her "Journal," September 3, 1792: "To attain this end we must will the means. No barbarous humanity! The people are aroused, the people are avenging the crimes of the past three years."—Her son, a sort of raw, sentimental Puritan, fond of bloodshed, was one of Robespierre's most active agents. He remembered what he had done, as is evident by Michelet's narrative, and cast his eyes down, well knowing that his present philanthropy could not annihilate past acts.]

[Footnote 3233: Archives Nationales, AF. II., 46. Register of the Acts of the Committee of Public Safety, vol. II., orders of August 3, 1793.]

[Footnote 3234: On the concentration and accumulation of business, cf. Archives Nationales, ibid., acts of Aug. 4, 5, 6, 1793; and AF. II., 23, acts of Brumaire I and 15, year II.—On the distribution and dispatch of business in the Committee and the hours devoted to it, see Acts of April 6, June 13, 17, 18, Aug. 3, 1793, and Germinal 27, year II.—After August 3, two sessions were held daily, from 8 o'clock in the morning to 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and from 7 to 10 o'clock in the evening; at 10 o'clock, the Executive Council met with the Committee of Public Safety, and papers were signed about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning.—The files of AF. II., 23 to 42, contain an account of the doings of the Committee, the minutes of its meetings and of its correspondence. A perusal of these furnishes full details concerning the initiative and responsibility of the Committee. For example, (Nivose 4, year II., letters to Freron and Barras, at Marseilles,) "The Committee commend the vigorous measures you have sanctioned in your orders at Marseilles.—Marseilles, through you, affords a great example. Accustomed, as you are, to wielding thunderbolts, you are best calculated for still governing it... How glorious, citizen colleagues, to be able like you, after long continued labors and immortal fame, how gratifying, under such auspices, to return to the bosom of the National Convention!"—(AF. II., 36, Pluviose 7, year II., letter to the representatives on mission at Bordeaux, approving of the orders issued by them against merchants.) "concealed behind the obscurity of its complots, mercantilism cannot support the ardent, invigorating atmosphere of Liberty; Sybaritic indolence quails before Spartan virtue. "—(AF. II., 37, Pluviose 20, letter to Prieur de la Marne, sent to Nantes to replace Carrier.) "Carrier, perhaps, has been badly surrounded;.... his ways are harsh, the means he employs are not well calculated to win respect for the national authority;... he is used up in that city. He is to leave and go elsewhere."—(AF. II., 36, Nivose 21, letter to Fouche, Laporte, and Albitte, at Commune-affranchie, signed by Billaud-Varennes and composed by him.) "The convention, Nivose I, has approved of the orders and other measures taken by you. We can add nothing to its approval. The Committee of Public Safety subjects all operations to the same principles, that is to say, it conforms to yours and acts with you."]

[Footnote 3235: Sainte-Beuve, "Nouveaux Lundis," VIII., 105. (Unpublished report by Vice-admiral Villaret-Joyeuse, May 28, 1794.)]

[Footnote 3236: Carnot, "Memoires," I., 107.]

[Footnote 3237: Ibid., I., 450, 523, 527, "we often ate only a morsel of dry bread on the Committee's table."]

[Footnote 3238: Moniteur, XXI., 362. (Speech by Cambon, Session of Thermidor 11, year II.)]

[Footnote 3239: Beugnot, "Memoires," II., 15. (Stated by Jean Bon himself in a conversation at Mayence in 1813.)]

[Footnote 3240: Gaudia, duc de Gaete, "Memoires," I., 16, 28. "I owed my life to Cambon personally, while, through his firmness, he preserved the whole Treasury department, continually attacked by the all-powerful Jacobin club."—On the 8th of Thermidor, Robespierre was "very severe on the administration of the Treasury, which he accused of an aristocratic and anti-revolutionary spirit.... Under this pretext, it was known that the orator meant to propose an act of accusation against the representative charged with its surveillance, as well as against the six commissioners, and bring them before the Revolutionary Tribunal, whose verdict could not be doubtful."—Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 431, 436, 441. Speech by Robespierre, Thermidor 8, year II... ". Machiavellian designs against the small fund-holders of the State.. .. A contemptible financial system, wasteful, irritating, devouring, absolutely independent of your supreme oversight.... Anti-revolution exists in the financial department.... Who are its head administrators? Brissotins, Feuillants, aristocrats and well-known knaves—the Cambons, the Mallarmes, the Ramels!"]

[Footnote 3241: Carnot, "Memoires," I., 425.]

[Footnote 3242: Moniteur, XXIV., 47, 50. (Session of Germinal 2, year II.) Speeches by Lindet and Carnot with confirmatory details.—Lindet says that he had signed twenty thousand papers.—Ibid., XXXIII., 591. (Session of Ventose 12, year III. Speech by Barere.) "The labor of the Committee was divided amongst the different members composing it, but all, without distinction, signed each other's work. I, myself, knowing nothing of military affairs, have perhaps, in this matter, given four thousand signatures."—Ibid., XXIV., 74. (Session of Germinal 6, year III.) Speech of Lavesseur, witness of an animated scene between Carnot and Robespierre concerning two of Carnot's clerks, arrested by order of Robespierre.—Carnot adds "I had myself signed this order of arrest without knowing it."—Ibid., XXII., 116. (Session of Vendemiaire 8, year II., speech by Carnot in narrating the arrest of General Huchet for his cruelties in Vendee.) On appearing before the committee of Public Safety, Robespierre defended him and he was sent back to the army and promoted to a higher rank; I was obliged to sign in spite of my opposition."]

[Footnote 3243: Carnot, "Memoires," I., 572. (Speech by Carnot, Germinal 2, year III.)]

[Footnote 3244: Senart, "Memoires," 145, 153. (Details on the members of the two Committees.)]

[Footnote 3245: Reports by Billaud on the organization of the revolutionary government, November 18, 1793 and on the theory of democratic government, April 20, 1794.—Reports by Robespierre on the political situation of the Republic, November 17, 1793; and on the principles of revolutionary government, December 5, 1793.—Information on the genius of revolutionary laws, signed principally by Robespierre and Billaud, November 29, 1793.—Reports by Robespierre on the principles of political morality which ought to govern the Convention, February 5, 1794; and on the relationship between religious and moral ideas and republican principles, May 7, 1794.]

[Footnote 3246: Billaud no longer goes on mission after he becomes one of the Committee of Public Safety. Robespierre never went. Barere, who is of daily service, is likewise retained at Paris.—All the others serve on the missions and several repeatedly, and for a long time.]

[Footnote 3247: Moniteur, XXIV., 60. The words of Carnot, session of Germinal 2, year III.—Ibid., XXII., 138, words of Collot, session of Vendemiaire 12, year III. "Billaud and myself have sent into the departments three hundred thousand written documents, and have made at least ten thousand minutes (of meetings) with our own hand."]

[Footnote 3248: Dussault "Fragment pour servir a l'histoire de la Convention."]

[Footnote 3249: Thibaudeau, I., 49.]

[Footnote 3250: Arnault, "Souvenirs d'un Sexagenaire," II., 78.]

[Footnote 3251: "Memoires d'un Bourgeois de Paris," by Veron, II., 14. (July 7, 1815.)]

[Footnote 3252: Cf. Thibaudeau, "Memoires," I., 46. "It seemed, then, that to escape imprisonment, or the scaffold, there was no other way than to put others in your place."]

[Footnote 3253: Carnot, "Memoires." I., 508.]

[Footnote 3254: Carnot, I., 527. (Words of Prieur de la Cote d'Or.)]

[Footnote 3255: Carnot, ibid., 527. (The words of Prieur.)]

[Footnote 3256: "La Nouvelle Minerve," I., 355, (Notes by Billaud-Varennes, indited at St. Domingo and copied by Dr. Chervin.) "We came to a decision only after being wearied out by the nightly meetings of our Committee."]

[Footnote 3257: Decree of September 17, 1793, on "Suspects." Ordinance of the Paris Commune, October 10, 1793, extending it so as to include "those who, having done nothing against the Revolution, do nothing for it."—Cf. "Papers seized in Robespierre's apartments," II., 370, letter of Payan. "Every man who has not been for the Revolution has been against it, for he has done nothing for the country.... In popular commissions, individual humanity, the moderation which assumes the veil of justice, is criminal."]

[Footnote 3258: Mortimer-Ternaux, VIII., 394, and following pages; 414 and following pages, (on the successive members of the two Committees).]

[Footnote 3259: Wallon, "Histoire du Tribunal Revolutionaire," III., 129-131. Herault de Sechelles, allied with Danton, and accused of being indulgent, had just given guarantees, however, and applied the revolutionary regime in Alsace with a severity worthy of Billaud. (Archives des Affaires etrangeres, vol. V., 141.) "Instructions for civil commissioners by Herault, representative of the people," (Colmar, Frimaire 2, year II.,) with suggestions as to the categories of persons that are to be "sought for, arrested and immediately put in jail," probably embracing nineteen-twentieths of the inhabitants.]

[Footnote 3260: Dauban, "Paris" en 1794, 285, and following pages. (Police Reports, Germinal, year II.) Arrest of Hebert and associates "Nothing was talked about the whole morning but the atrocious crimes of the conspirators. They were regarded as a thousand times more criminal than Capet and his wife. They ought to be punished a thousand times over.... The popular hatred of Hebert is at its height... . The people cannot forgive Hebert for having deceived them.... Popular rejoicings were universal on seeing the conspirators led to the scaffold."]

[Footnote 3261: Moniteur, XXIV., 53. (Session of Germinal 2, year III.) Words of Prieur de la Cote-d'Or: "The first quarrel that occurred in the Committee was between Saint-Just and Carnot; the latter says to the former, 'I see that you and Robespierre are after a dictatorship.'"—Ibid., 74. Levasseur makes a similar statement.-Ibid., 570. (Session of Germinal 2, year III., words of Carnot): "I had a right to call Robespierre a tyrant every time I spoke to him. I did the same with Saint-Just and Couthon."]

[Footnote 3262: Carnot, I., 525. (Testimony of Prieur.) Ibid., 522. Saint-Just says to Carnot: "You are in league with the enemies of the patriots. It is well for you to know that a few lines from me could send you to the guillotine in two days."]

[Footnote 3263: Buchez et Roux, XXX., 185. (Reply of Billaud, Collot, Vadier and Barere to the renewed charges against them by Lecointre.)—Moniteur, XXIV., 84. (Session of Germinal 7, year III.) Words of Barere: "On the 4th of Thermidor, in the Committee, Robespierre speaks like a man who had orders to give and victims to point out."—"And you, Barere," he replies, "remember the report you made on the 2nd of Thermidor,"]

[Footnote 3264: Heraclitus ( c. 540-480 BC) pre-Socratic philosopher, who believed in a cosmic justice where sinners would be punished and haunted by the Erinyes, (the furies) the handmaids of justice. (SR).]

[Footnote 3265: Saint-Just, report on the Girondists, July 8, 1793; on the necessity of imprisoning persons inimical to the Revolution, Feb.26, 1794; on the Hebertists, March 13; on the arrest of Herault-Sechelles and Simond, March 17; on the arrest of Danton and associates March 31; on a general policy, April 15.—Cf., likewise, his report on declaring the government revolutionary until peace is declared, Oct. 10, 1793, and his report of the 9th of Thermidor, year II.]

[Footnote 3266: Buchez et Roux, XXXI., 346. (Report of March 13, 1794.)—XXXII., 314. (Report of April 15.)]

[Footnote 3267: See "The Revolution," II., 313.]

[Footnote 3268: A single phrase often suffices to give the measure of a man's intellect and character. The following by Saint-Just has this merit. (Apropos of Louis XVI. who, refraining from defending himself, left the Tuileries and took refuge in the Assembly on the 10th of August.) "He came amongst you; he forced his way here.... He resorted to the bosom of the legislature; his soldiers burst into the asylum.. .. He made his way, so to say, by sword thrusts into the bowels of his country that he might find a place of concealment."]

[Footnote 3269: Particularly in the long report on Danton containing a historic survey of the factions, (Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 76,) and the report on the general police, (Ibid., 304,) with another historic document of the same order. "Brissot and Ronsin (were) recognized royalists.. .. Since Necker a system of famine has been devised.... Necker had a hand in the Orleans faction.... Double representation (of the Third Estate) was proposed for it." Among other charges made against Danton; after the fusillade on the Champ de Mars in July, 1791 "You went to pass happy days at Arcis-sur-Aube, if it is possible for a conspirator against his country to be happy.... When you knew that the tyrant's fall was prepared and inevitable you returned to Paris on the 9th of August. You wanted to go to bed on that evil night.... Hatred, you said, is insupportable to me and (yet) you said to us 'I do not like Marat,' etc." There is an apostrophe of nine consecutive pages against Danton, who is absent.]

[Footnote 3270: Buchez et Roux, Ibid., 312. "Liberty emanated from the bosom of tempests; its origin dates with that of the world issuing out of chaos along with man, who is born dissolved in tears." (Applause.)—Ibid., 308. Cf. his portrait, got up for effect, of the "revolutionary who is a treasure of good sense and probity."]

[Footnote 3271: Ibid., 312. "Liberty is not the chicanery of a palace; it is rigidity towards evil."]

[Footnote 3272: Barere, "Memoires," I. 347. "Saint-Just... discussed like a vizier."]

[Footnote 3273: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 314. "Are the lessons furnished by history, the examples afforded by all great men, lost to the universe? These all counsel us to lead obscure lives; the lowly cot and virtue form the grandeurs of this world. Let us seek our habitations on the banks of streams, rock the cradles of our children and educate them in Disinterestedness and Intrepidity."—As to his political or economic capacity and general ideas, read his speeches and his "Institutions," (Buchez et Roux, XXVIII., 133; XXX., 305, XXXV., 369,) a mass of chemical and abstract rant.]

[Footnote 3274: Carnot, I., 527. (Narrated by Prieur.) "Often when hurriedly eating a bit of dry bread at the Committee table, Barere with a jest, brought a smile on our lips."]

[Footnote 3275: Veron, II., 14.-Arnault, II., 74.—Cf., passim, "Memoires de Barere," and the essay on Barere by Macaulay.]

[Footnote 3276: Vilate, Barere Edition, 184, 186, 244. "Fickle, frank, affectionate, fond of society, especially that of women, in quest of luxuries and knowing how to spend money."—Carnot, II. 511. In Prieur's eyes, Barere was simply "a good fellow."]

[Footnote 3277: Moniteur, XXI., 173. (Justification of Joseph Lebon and "his somewhat harsh ways.") "The Revolution is to be spoken of with respect, and revolutionary measures with due regard. Liberty is a virgin, to raise whose veil is a crime."—And again: "The tree of Liberty grows when watered with the blood of tyrants."]

[Footnote 3278: Moniteur, XX., 580, 582, 583, 587.—"Campagnes de la Revolution Francaise dans les Pyrenees-Orientales," by Fervel, II., 36 and following pages.—General Dugommier, after the capture of Toulouse, spared the English general O'Hara, taken prisoner in spite of the orders of the Convention. and received the following letter from the committee of Public Safety. "The Committee accepts your victory and your wound as compensations." On the 24th of December, Dugommier, that he may not be present at the Toulon massacres, asks to return to the convention and is ordered off to the army of the eastern Pyrenees.—In 1797, there were thirty thousand French prisoners in England.]

[Footnote 3279: Moniteur, XVIII., 291. (Speech by Barere, session of Brumaire 8, year II.) At this rate, there are one hundred and forty deputies on mission to the armies and in the departments.—Before the institution of the Committee of Public Safety, (April 7, 1793) there were one hundred and sixty representatives in the departments, sent there to hasten the levy of two hundred thousand men. (Moniteur, XVII., 99, speech by Cambon, July 11, 1793.) The Committee gradually recalled most of these representatives and, on the 16th July, only sixty-three were on mission.—(Ibid., XVII., 152, speech by Gossuin, July 16.)—On the 9th of Nivose, the committee designated fifty-eight representatives to establish the revolutionary government in certain places and fixing the limits of their jurisdictions. (Archives Nationales, AF., II., 22.) Subsequently, several were recalled, and replaced by others.—The letters and orders of the representatives on mission are filed in the National Archives according to departments, in two series, one of which comprises missions previous to Thermidor 9, and the other missions after that date.]

[Footnote 3280: Thibaudeau, "Histoire du Terrorisme dans le department de la Vienne," p.4. "Paris, Brumaire 15, the sans-culotte Piorry, representative of the people to the sans-culottes composing the popular club of Poitiers."]

[Footnote 3281: Archives Nationales, AF., II., 116. (Letter of Laplanche, Orleans, September 10, 1793.—"Also proces-verbaux of the Orleans sections, September 7.) "I organized them, after selecting them from the popular club, into a revolutionary committee. They worked under my own eye, their bureau being in an adjoining chamber... I required sure, local information, which I could not have had without collaborators of the country.... The result is that I have arrested this night more than sixty aristocrats, strangers or 'suspects."—"De Martel, Etudes sur Fouche," 84. Letter of Chaumette, who posted Fouche concerning the Nevers Jacobins. "Surrounded by royalists, federalists and fanatics, representative Fouche had only 3 or 4 persecuted patriots to advise him."]

[Footnote 3282: Archives Nationales, AF., II., 88. Speech by Rousselin, Frimaire 9—Ibid., F.7, 4421. Speech and orders issued by Rousselin, Brumaire 25.—Cf.. Albert Babeau, "Histoire de Troyes pendant la Revolution," vol. II. Missions of Gamier de Rousselin and Bo.]

[Footnote 3283: Archives Nationales, AF., II., 145. (Order of Maignet, Avignon, Floreal 13, year II., and proclamation of Floreal 14.)—Ibid., AF., II., 111, Grenoble. Prairial 8, year II. Similar orders issued by Albitte and Laporte, for renewing all the authorities of Grenoble.—Ibid, AF., II., 135. Similar order of Ricord at Grasse, Pluviose 28, and throughout the Var.—Ibid., AF., II., 36. Brumaire, year II., circular of the Committee of Public Safety to the representatives on mission in the departments: "Before quitting your post, you are to effect the most complete purification of the constituted authorities and public functionaries."]

[Footnote 3284: Decrees of Frimaire 6 and 14, year II.]

[Footnote 3285: Archives Nationales, AF., II., 22. Acts of the committee of Public Safety, Nivose 9, year II.]

[Footnote 3286: Ibid., AF., II., 37. Letter to the Committee on the War, signed by Barere and Billaud-Varennes, Pluviose 23,, year II.]

[Footnote 3287: Ibid., AF., II., 36. Letter of the Committee of Public Safety to Le Carpentier, on mission in l'Orne, Brumaire 19, year II. "The administrative bodies of Alencon, the district excepted, are wholly gangrened; all are Feuillants, or infected with a no less pernicious spirit.... For the choice of subjects, and the incarceration of individuals, you can refer to the sans-culottes: the most nervous are Symaroli and Preval.—At Montagne, the administration must be wholly removed, as well as the collector of the district, and the post-master;... purify the popular club, expel nobles and limbs of the law, those that have been turned out of office, priests, muscadins, etc.... Dissolve two companies, one the grenadiers and the other the infantry who are very muscadin and too fond of processions.... Re-form the staff and officers of the National Guard. To secure more prompt and surer execution of these measures of security you may refer to the present municipality, the Committee of Surveillance and the Cannoneers.]

[Footnote 3288: Ibid., AF.,II., 37. To Ricord, on mission at Marseilles, Pluviose 7, year II, a strong and rude admonition: he is going soft, he has gone to live with Saint-Meme, a suspect; he is too biased in favor of the Marseilles people who, during the siege "made sacrifices to procure subsistences;" he blamed their arrest, etc.—Floreal 13, year II., to Bouret on mission in the Manche and at Calvados. "The Committee are under the impression that you are constantly deceived by an insidious secretary who, by the bad information he has given you, has often led you to give favorable terms to the aristocracy, etc."—Ventose 6, year II., to Guimberteau, on mission near the army on the coasts of Cherbourg: "The committee is astonished to find that the military commission established by you, undoubtedly for striking off the heads of conspirators, was the first to let them off. Are you not acquainted with the men who compose it? For what have you chosen them? If you do not know them, how does it happen that you have summoned them for such duties?"—Ibid., and Ventose 23, order to Guimberteau to investigate the conduct of his secretary]

[Footnote 3289: See especially in the "Archives des Affaires etrangeres," vols. 324 to 334, the correspondence of secret agents sent into the interior.]

[Footnote 3290: Archives Nationales, AF.,II., 37, to Fromcastel on mission in Indre-et-Loire, Floreal 13, year II. "The Committee sends you a letter from the people's club of Chinon, demanding the purging and organization of all the constituted authorities of this district. The committee requests you to proceed at once to carry out this important measure."]

[Footnote 3291: Words of Robespierre, session of the convention September 24, 1793.—On another representative, Merlin de Thionville, who likewise stood fire, Robespierre wrote as follows: "Merlin de Thionville, famous for surrendering Mayence, and more than suspected of having received his reward."]

[Footnote 3292: Guillon, II., 207.—"Fouche," by M. de Martel, 292.]

[Footnote 3293: Hamel, III., 395, and following pages.—Buchez et Roux, XXX., 435. (Session of the Jacobin club, Nivose 12, year II. Speech of Collot d'Herbois.) "To-day I no longer recognize public opinion; had I reached Paris three days later, I should probably have been indicted."]

[Footnote 3294: Marcelin Boudet, "Les conventionnels d'Auvergne," 438. (Unpublished memoir of Maignet.)]

[Footnote 3295: Buchez et Roux, XXXIV., 165, 191. (Evidence of witnesses on the trial of Carrier.)—Paris, II., 113, "Histoire de Joseph Lebon." "The prisons," says Le Bon, "overflowed at Saint-Pol. I was there and released two hundred persons. Well, in spite of my orders, several were put back by the committee of Surveillance, authorised by Lebas, a friend of Darthe. What could I do against Darthe supported by Saint-Just and Lebas? He would have denounced me."—Ibid., 128, apropos of a certain Lefevre, "veteran of the Revolution," arrested and brought before the revolutionary tribunal by order of Lebon. "It was necessary to take the choice of condemning him, or of being denounced and persecuted myself, without saving him."—Beaulieu, "Essai," V., 233. "I am afraid and I cause fear was the principle of all the revolutionary atrocities."]

[Footnote 3296: Ludovic Sciout, "Histoire de la Constitution civile du Clerge," IV., 136. (Orders of Pinet and Cavaignac, Pluviose 22, and Ventose 2.)—Moniteur, XXIV., 469. (Session of Prairial 30, year III., denunciation of representative Laplanche at the bar of the house, by Boismartin.) On the 24th of Brumaire, year II., Laplanche and General Seepher installed themselves at St. Lo in the house of an old man of seventy, a M. Lemonnier then under arrest. "Scarcely had they entered the house when they demanded provisions of every kind, linen, clothes, furniture, jewelry, plate, vehicles and title-deeds—all disappeared." Whilst the inhabitants of St. Lo were living on a few ounces of brown bread, "the best bread, the choicest wines, pillaged in the house of Lemonnier, were lavishly given in pans and kettles to General Seepher's horses, also to those of representative Laplanche." Lemonnier, set at liberty, could not return to his emptied dwelling then transformed into a storehouse. He lived at the inn, stripped of all his possessions, valued at sixty thousand livres, having saved from his effects only one silver table-service, which he had taken with him into prison.]

[Footnote 3297: Marcelin Boudet, 446. (Notes of M. Ignace de Barante.) Also 440. (Unpublished memoir of Maignet).]

[Footnote 3298: Archives Nationales, AF., II., 59. Extract from the minutes of the meetings of the People's club of Metz, and depositions made before the committee of Surveillance of the club, Floreal 12, year II., on the conduct of representative Duquesnoy, arrived at Metz the evening before at six o'clock.—There are thirty-two depositions, and among others those of M. Altmayer, Joly and Cledat. One of the witnesses states: "As to these matters, I regarded this citizen (Duquesnoy) as tipsy or drunk, or as a man beside himself."—This is customary with Duquesnoy.—Cf. Paris, "His. de Joseph Lebon," I., 273, 370.-"Archives des Affaires etrangeres," vol. 329. Letter of Gadolle, September 11, 1793. "I saw Duquesnoy, the deputy, dead drunk at Bergues, on Whit-Monday, at 11 o'clock in the evening."—"Un Sejour en France, 1792 to 1796, p. 136. "His naturally savage temper is excited to madness by the abuse of strong drink. General de .....assures us that he saw him seize the mayor of Avesnes, a respectable old man, by the hair on his presenting him with a petition relating to the town, and throw him down with the air of a cannibal." "He and his brother were dealers in hops at retail, at Saint Pol. He made this brother a general."]

[Footnote 3299: Alexandrine des Echerolles, "Une famile noble sous la Terreur," 209. At Lyons, Marin, the commissioner, "a tall, powerful, robust man with stentorian lungs," opens his court with a volley of "republican oaths... ".. The crowd of supplicants melts away. One lady alone dared present her petition. "Who are you?" She gives her name. "What! You have the audacity to mention a traitor's name in this place?" Get away and, giving her a push, he put her outside the door with a kick.]

[Footnote 32100: Ibid. A mass of evidence proves, on the contrary, that people of every class gave their assistance, owing to which the fire was almost immediately extinguished.]

[Footnote 32101: Ibid. The popular club unanimously attests these facts, and despatches six delegates to enter a protest at the convention. Up to the 9th of Thermidor, no relief is granted, while the tax imposed by Duquesnoy is collected. On the 5th Fructidor, year II., the order of Duquesnoy is cancelled by the committee of Public Safety, but the money is not paid back.]

[Footnote 32102: Paris, I., 370. (Words of Duquesnoy to Lebon.)]

[Footnote 32103: Carnot, "Memoires," I., 414. (Letter of Duquesnoy to the central bureau of representatives at Arras.) The import of these untranslatable profanities being sufficiently clear I let them stand as in the original.-Tr.]

[Footnote 32104: "Un Sejour en France," 158, 171.—Manuscript journal of Mallet du Pan (January, 1795).—Cf. his letters to the convention, the jokes of jailors and sbirri, for instance.—(Moniteur, XVIII., 214, Brumaire I, year II.)—Lacretelle, "Dix Annees d'Epreuves," 178. "He ordered that everybody should dance in his fief of Picardy. They danced even in prison. Whoever did not dance was "suspect." He insisted on a rigid observance of the fetes in honor of Reason, and that everybody should visit the temple of the Goddess each decadi, which was the cathedral (at Noyon). Ladies, bourgeoises, seamstresses, and cooks, were required to form what was called the chain of Equality. We dragoons were forced to be performers in this strange ballet."]

[Footnote 32105: De Martel, "Fouche," 418. (Orders of Albitte and Collot, Nivose 13, year II.)]

[Footnote 32106: Camille Boursier, "Essai sur la Terreur en Anjou," 225. Letter of Vacheron, Frimaire 15, year II.) "Republiquain, it is absolutely necessary, immediately, that you have sent or brought into the house of the representatives, a lot of red wine, of which the consumption is greater than ever. People have a right to drink to the Republic when they have helped to preserve the commune you and yours live in. I hold you responsible for my demand." Signed, "le republiquain, Vacheron."]

[Footnote 32107: Ibid., 210. Deposition of Madame Edin, apropos of Quesnoy, a prostitute, aged twenty-six, Brumaire 12, year III.; and of Rose, another prostitute. Similar depositions by Benaben and Scotty.]

[Footnote 32108: Dauban, "La Demagogie en 1793," p.369. (Extracts from the unpublished memoirs of Mercier de Rocher.)—Ibid., 370. "Bourdon de l'Oise had lived with Tuncq at Chantonney, where they kept busy emptying bottles of fine wine. Bourdon is an excellent patriot, a man of sensibility, but, in his fits of intoxication, he gives himself up to impracticable views. "Let those rascally administrators," he says, "be arrested!" Then, going to the window,—he heard a runaway horse galloping in the street—"That's another anti-revolutionary! Let 'em all be arrested!"—Cf. "Souvenirs," by General Pelleport, p.21. At Perpignan, he attended the fete of Reason. "The General in command of the post made an impudent speech, even to the most repulsive cynicisim. Some prostitutes, well known to this wretch, filled one of the tribunes; they waved their handkerchiefs and shouted "Vive la Raison!" After listening to similar harangues by representatives Soubrang and Michaud, Pelleport, although half cured (of his wound) returns to camp: "I could not breathe freely in town, and did not think that I was safe until facing the enemy along with my comrades."]

[Footnote 32109: Archives des Affaires etrangeres, vol.332; correspondence of secret agents, October, 1793. "Citizen Cusset, representative of the people, shows no dignity in his mission; he drinks like a Lapithe, and when intoxicated commits the arbitrary acts of a vizier." For the style and orthography of Cusset, see one of his letters. (Dauban, "Paris en 1794," p 14.)—Berryat St. Prix, "La Justice Revolutionnaire," (2nd ed.) 339.]

[Footnote 32110: Ibid., 371. (According to "Pieces et Documents" published by M. Fajon.)—Moniteur, XXIV., 453. (Session of Floreal 24, year III.) Address of the commune of Saint-Jean du Gard.—XXI., 528. (Session of Fructidor 2, year III.) Address of the Popular club of Nimes.]

[Footnote 32111: Moniteur, XXIV., 602. (Session of Prairial 13, year III.) Report of Durand Meillan: "This denunciation is only too well supported by documents. It is for the convention to say whether it will hear them read. I have to state beforehand that it can hear nothing more repulsive nor better authenticated."—De Martel, "Fouche, 246. (Report of the constituted authorities of la Nievre on the missions of Collot d'Herbois, Laplanche, Fouche and Pointe, Prairial 19, year III.) Laplanche, a former Benedictine, is the most foul-mouthed." In his speech to the people of Moulins-Engelbert, St. Pierre-le-Montier, and Nevers, Laplanche asked girls to surrender themselves and let modesty go. "Beget children," he exclaims, "the Republic needs them. continence is the virtue of fools." Bibliotheque Nationale, Lb. 41, No. 1802. (Denunciation, by the six sections of the Dijon commune to the convention, of Leonard Bourdon and Piochefer Bernard de Saintes, during their mission in Cote-d'Or.) Details on the orgies of Bernard with the municipality, and on the drunkenness and debaucheries of Bourdon with the riff-raff~ of the country; authentic documents proving the robberies and assassinations committed by Bernard. He pillaged the house of M. Micault, and, in four hours, had this person arrested, tried and guillotined; he attended the execution himself, and that evening, in the dead man's house, danced and sang before his daughter with his acolytes.]

[Footnote 32112: "Souvenirs," by General Pelleport, p.8. He, with his battalion, is inspected in the Place du Capitale, at Toulouse, by the representative on mission. "It seems as if I can still see that charlatan: He shook his ugly plumed head and dragged along his saber like a merry soldier, wishing to appear brave. It made me feel sad."]

[Footnote 32113: Fervel, "Campagnes des Francais dans les Pyrenees Orientals," I., 169. (October, 1793.)—Ibid., 201, 206.—Cf. 188. Plan of Fabre for seizing Roses and Figuieres, with eight thousand men, without provisions or transports. "Fortune is on the side of fools," he said. Naturally the scheme fails. Collioure is lost, and disasters accumulate. As an offset to this the worthy general Dagobert is removed. Commandant Delatre and chief-of-staff Ramel are guillotined. In the face of the impracticable orders of the representatives the commandant of artillery commits suicide. On the devotion of the officers and enthusiasm of the troops, Ibid., 105, 106, 130, 131, 162.]

[Footnote 32114: Sybel (Dosquet's translation, French:), II., 435; III., 132, 140. (For details and authorities, cf. the Memoirs of Marshal Soult.)]

[Footnote 32115: Gouvion St. Cyr, "Memoires sur les campagnes de 1792 a la paix de Campio-Formio," I., pp.91 to 139.—Ibid., 229. "The effect of this was to lead men who had any means to keep aloof from any sort of promotion."—Cf., ibid., II., 131 (November, 1794,) the same order of things still kept up. By order of the representatives the army encamps during the winter in sheds on the left bank of the Rhine, near Mayence, a useless proceeding and mere literary parade. "They would listen to no reason; a fine army and well-mounted artillery were to perish with cold and hunger, for no object whatever, in quarters that might have been avoided." The details are heart-rending. Never was military heroism so sacrificed to the folly of civilian commanders.]

[Footnote 32116: See Paris, "Histoire de Joseph Lebon," I., ch. I, for biographical details and traits of character.]

[Footnote 32117: Ibid., I., 13.—His mother became crazy and was put in an asylum. Her derangement, he says, was due to "her indignation at his oath of allegiance (to the Republic) and at his appointment to the curacy of Nouvelle-Vitasse."]

[Footnote 32118: Ibid., I., 123. Speech by Lebon in the church of Beaurains.]

[Footnote 32119: Ibid., II., 71, 72.—Cf. 85. "Citizen Chamonart, wine-dealer, standing at the entrance of his cellar, sees the representative pass, looks at him and does not salute him. Lebon steps up to him, arrests him, treats him as an agent of Pitt and Cobourg."...."They search him, take his pocket-book and lead him off to the Anglaises (a prison)."]

[Footnote 32120: Ibid., II., 84.]

[Footnote 32121: Moniteur, XXV., 201. (Session of Messidor 22, year III.) "When in the tribune (of the Convention) prison conspiracies were announced. ... my dreams were wholly of prison conspiracies."]

[Footnote 32122: Ibid., 211. (Explanations given by Lebon to the Convention.)—Paris, II., 350, 351. (Verdict of the jury.)]

[Footnote 32123: Paris, II., 85.]

[Footnote 32124: Buchez et Roux, XXXIV., 181. (Depositions of Monneron, a merchant.)]

[Footnote 32125: Ibid., 184. (Deposition of Chaux.)—Cf. 200. (Depositions of Monneron and Villemain, merchants.)]

[Footnote 32126: Ibid., 204. (Deposition of Lamarie, administrator of the department.)]

[Footnote 32127: Ibid., 173. (Deposition of Erard, a copyist.)—168. (Deposition of Thomas, health officer.) "To all his questions, Carrier replied in the grossest language."]

[Footnote 32128: Ibid., 203. (Deposition of Bonami, merchant.)]

[Footnote 32129: Ibid., 156. (Deposition of Vaujois, public prosecutor to the military commission.)]

[Footnote 32130: Ibid., 169. (Deposition of Thomas.)—Berryat Saint-Prix, pp. 34, 35..—Buchez et Roux, 118. "He received the members of the popular club with blows, also the municipal officers with saber thrusts, who came to demand supplies"...."He draws his saber (against the boatman) and strikes at him, which he avoids only by running away."]

[Footnote 32131: Buchez et Roux, XXXIV., 196. (Deposition of Julien.) "Carrier said to me in a passion: 'It is you, is it, you damned beggar, who presumes to denounce me to the Committee of Public Safety.... As it is sometimes necessary for the public interests to get rid of certain folks quickly, I won't take the trouble to send you to the guillotine, I'll be your executioner myself!"]

[Footnote 32132: Ibid., 175. (Deposition of Tronjolly.) 295. (Depositions of Jean Lavigne, a shopkeeper; of Arnandan, civil commissioner; also of Corneret, merchant.) 179. (Deposition of Villemain).—Berryat Saint-Prix, 34. "Carrier, says the gendarme Desquer, who carried his letters, was a roaring lion rather than an officer of the people." "He looked at once like a charlatan and a tiger," says another witness.]

[Footnote 32133: Ibid., XXXIV., 204. (Deposition of Lamarie.)]

[Footnote 32134: Ibid., 183. (Deposition of Caux.)]

[Footnote 32135: Mallet-Dupan, "Memoires," II., 6. (Memorial of Feb. I, 1794.) On Andre Dumont, "Un Sejour en France," 158, 171.—On Merlin de Thionville, Michelet, VI., 97.]

[Footnote 32136: De Martel, "Fouche" 100.]

[Footnote 32137: Mallet-Dupan, II., 46.]

[Footnote 32138: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 413, 423. (Letter of Julien to Robespierre.)]

[Footnote 32139: Archives Nationales, AF., II., III. An order issued by Bourbotte, Tours, Messidor 5, year II., "requiring the district administration to furnish him personally, as well as for the citizens attached to his commission, forty bottles of red wine and thirty of white wine, to be taken from the cellars of emigres, or from those of persons condemned to death; and, besides this, fifty bottles of common wine other than white or red."—On the 2nd of Messidor, ale is drunk and there is a fresh order for fifty bottles of red wine, fifty of common wine, and two bottles of brandy.—De Martel, "Fouche," 419, 420.—Moniteur, XXIV., 604. (Session of Prairial 13, par III.) "Dugue reads the list of charges brought against Mallarme. He is accused.... of having put in requisition whatever pleased him for his table and for other wants, without paying for anything, not even for the post-horses and postillions that carried him."—Ibid. 602. Report of Peres du Gers. "He accuses Dartigoyte... of having taken part with his secretaries in the auction of the furniture of Daspe, who had been condemned; of having kept the most valuable pieces for himself, and afterwards fixing their price; of having warned those who had charge of the sale that confinement awaited whoever should bid on the articles he destined for himself."—Laplanche, ex-Benedictine, said in his mission in Loiret, that "those who did not like the Revolution must pay those who make it."]

[Footnote 32140: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 426. (Extract from the Memoirs of Senart.)—Hamel, III., 565. (Description of Teresa's domicile by the Marquis de Paroy, a petitioner and eye-witness.)]

[Footnote 32141: The reader might read about Tallien in the book written by Therese Chatrles-Vallin: "Tallien," "Le mal-aime de la Revolution", Ed. Jean Picollec, Paris 1997. (SR).]

[Footnote 32142: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 12. (Extract from the Memoirs of Senart.) "The certified copies of these drafts are on file with the committee of General Security."]

[Footnote 32143: Report of Courtois, 360. (Letters of Julien to Robespierre, Pluviose 15 and 16, year II.)—Buchez et Roux, XXXIV., 199, 200, 202, 203, 211. (Depositions of Villemain, Monneron, Legros, Robin.)—Berryat Saint-Prix, 35. (Depositions of Fourrier, and of Louise Courant, sempstress.)]

[Footnote 32144: See, on Tallien," Memoires de Senart."—On Javogues, Moniteur, XXIV., 461, Floreal 24, III. Petition against Javogues, with several pages of signatures, especially those of the inhabitants of Montbrison: "In the report made by him to the Convention he puts down coin and assignats at seven hundred and seventy-four thousand six hundred and ninety-six francs, while the spoils of one person provided him with five hundred thousand francs in cash."—On Fouche, De Martel, 252.—On Dumont, Mallet-Dupan, "Manuscript notes." (January, 1795.) On Rovere, Michelet, VI., 256.—Carnot, II., 87. (According to the Memoirs of the German Olsner, who was in Paris under the Directory:) "The tone of Barras' Salon was that of a respectable gambling house; the house of Reubell resembled the waiting-room of an inn at which the mail-coach stops."]

[Footnote 32145: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 391, and XXXIII., 9. (Extracts from the Memoirs of Senart.)]

[Footnote 32146: Carnot, "Memoires," I. 416. Carnot, having shown to the Committee of Public Safety, proofs of the depredations committed on the army of the North, Saint-Just got angry and exclaimed: "It is only an enemy of the Republic that would accuse his colleagues of depredations, as if patriots hadn't a right to everything!"]

[Footnote 32147: As to Caligula see Suetonius and Philo.—With respect to Hakem, see "L'Expose de la Religion des Druses," by M. de Sacy.]

[Footnote 32148: Saint-Just, speaking in the Convention, says: "What constitutes a republic is the utter destruction of whatever is opposed to it."]

[Footnote 32149: Orders issued by Saint-Just and Lebas for the departments of Pas-de-Calais, Nord, la Somme et l'Aisne.—Cf. "Histoire de l'Alsace," by Stroebel, and "Recueil de pieces authentiques pour servir a l'histoire de la Revolution a Strasbourg," 3 vols.-Archives Nationales AF., II., 135, orders issued Brumaire 10, year II., and list of the one hundred and ninety-three persons taxed.]

[Footnote 32150: Buchez et Roux, XXXI., 32. (Saint-Just's reply to Mayor Monet.)—De Sybel, II., 447, 448. At the first interview Saint-Just said to Schneider: "Why use so much ceremony? You know the crimes of the aristocrats? In the twenty-four hours taken for one investigation you might have twenty-four condemned."]

[Footnote 32151: "Journal de marche du sergent Fricasse," p.34. (Narrative by Marshal Soult.)]

[Footnote 32152: Cf. in the Bible, the story of Ahasuerus who, out of respect for his own majesty, can-not retract the order he has issued against the Jews, but he turns the difficulty by allowing them to defend themselves.]

[Footnote 32153: Mallet-Dupan, II., 47.]

[Footnote 32154: Berryat Saint-Prix, "La Justice Revolutionnaire," XVII.-Marcelin Boudet, "Les Conventionnels d'Auvergne," 269.—Moniteur, Brumaire 27, year III., report by Cales.]

[Footnote 32155: Paris, "Histoire de Joseph Lebon," I., 371; II., 341, 344.-De Martel, "Fouche," 153.—Berryat Saint-Prix, 347, 348.]

[Footnote 32156: Berryat Saint-Prix, 390.—Ibid., 404. (On Soubrie, executioner at Marseilles, letter of Lazare Giraud, public prosecutor): "I put him in the dungeon for having shed tears on the scaffold, in executing the anti-revolutionists we sent to be executed."]

[Footnote 32157: Moniteur, XVIII., 413. (Session of the Convention, letter of Lequinio and Laignelot, Rochefort, Brumaire 17, year II.) "We have appointed the patriot Anse guilloteneur and we have invited him, in dining with us, to come and assume his prescribed powers, and water them with a libation in honor of the Republic."—Paris, II., 72.]

[Footnote 32158: Marcelin Boudet, 270. (Testimony of Bardaneche de Bayonne.)]

[Footnote 32159: Guil1on, "Histoire de la ville de Lyons pendant la Revolution," II., 427, 431, 433.]

[Footnote 32160: "Memoire du Citoyen Freron," (in the Barriere collection,) p.357. (Testimony of a survivor.)]

[Footnote 32161: Paris, II., 32]

[Footnote 32162: Delandine, "Tableaux des prisons de Lyons," p.14.]

[Footnote 32163: Camille Boursier, "Essai sur la Terreur en Anjou," 164. (Letter of Boniface, ex-Benedictine, president of the Revolutionary committee, to Representative Richard, Brumaire 3, year II.) "We send you the said Henri Verdier, called de la Sauriniere.... It will not be long before you will see that we make the guillotine a present.... The Committee begs you to send him sacram sanctam guillotinam, and the republican minister of his worship... Not an hour of the day passes that new members do not come to us whom we desire to initiate in its mysteries, (sic)."]

[Footnote 32164: Thibaudeau, "Histoire du Terrorisme dans le department de la Vienne," 34, 48.—Berryat Saint-Prix, 239.]

[Footnote 32165: Archives Nationales F.7, 4435. (Letter of Lebon, Floreal 23, year II.)—Paris, I. 241.]

[Footnote 32166: Buchez et Roux, XXXIV., 184, 200. (Depositions of Chaux, Monneron and Villemain.)]

[Footnote 32167: Register of the Revolutionary Tribunal of Nantes, copied by M. Chevrier. (M. Chevrier has kindly sent me his manuscript copy.)—Berryat Saint-Prix, 94.—Archives Nationales, F7. 4591. (Extract from the acts of the Legislative Committee, session of Floreal 3, year III. Restitution of the confiscated property of Alexander Long to his son.) Dartigoyte, at Auch, did what Carrier did at Nantes. "It follows from the above abstract duly signed that on the 27th Germinal, year II., between eight and nine o'clock in the evening, Alexandre Long, Sr., was put to death on the public square of the commune of Auch by the executioner of criminal sentences, without any judgment having been rendered against the said Long."—In many places an execution becomes a spectacle for the Jacobins of the town and a party of pleasure. For instance, at Arras, on the square devoted to executions, a gallery was erected for spectators with a room for the sale of refreshments, and, during the execution of M. de Montgon, the "Ca ira" is played on the bass drum. (Paris, II., 158, and I., 159.) A certain facetious representative has rehearsals of the performance in his own house. "Lejeune, to feed his bloodthirsty imagination, had a small guillotine put up, on which he cut off the heads of all the poultry consumed at his table.... Often, in the middle of the repast, he had it brought in and set to work for the amusement of his guests." (Moniteur, XXIV., 607, session of June 1, 1795, letter from the district of Besancon, and with the letter, the confirmatory document.) "This guillotine, says the reporter, is deposited with the Committee of Legislation."]



CHAPTER III. THE RULERS. (continued).



I. The Central Government Administration.

The administrative body at Paris.—Composition of the group out of which it was recruited.—Deterioration of this group.—Weeding-out of the Section Assemblies.—Weeding out of the popular clubs.—Pressure of the government.

To provide these local sovereigns with the subordinate lieutenants and agents which they require, we have the local Jacobin population, and we have seen the composition of the recruits,[3301]

* the distressed and the perverted of every class and degree, especially the lowest,

* the castaways,

* envious and resentful subordinates,

* small shopkeepers in debt,

* the migrating, high-living workers,

* barflies,

* vagrants,

* men of the gutters,

* street-walkers,

—in short, every species of "anti-social vermin," male and female,[3302] including a few honest crack-brains into which the fashionable theory had freely found its way; the rest, and by far the largest number, are veritable beasts of prey, speculating on the established order of things and adopting the revolutionary faith only because it provides food for their appetites.—In Paris, they number five or six thousand, and, after Thermidor, there is about the same number, the same appetites rallying them around the same dogma,[3303] levelers and terrorists, "some because they are poor, others because they have broken off the habit of working at their trade," furious with "the scoundrels who own a coach house, against the rich and the hoarders of objects of prime necessity." Many of them "having soiled themselves during the Revolution, ready to do it again provided the rich rascals, monopolists and merchants can all be killed," all "frequenters of popular clubs who think themselves philosophers, although most of them are unable to read," at the head of them the remnant of the most notorious political bandits,

* the famous post-master, Drouet, who, in the tribune at the Convention, declared himself a "brigand,"[3304]

* Javogues, the robber of Montbrison and the "Nero of Ain,"

* the drunkard Casset, formerly a silk-worker and later the pasha of Thionville,

* Bertrand, the friend of Charlier, the ex-mayor and executioner of Lyons,

* Darthe, ex-secretary of Lebon and the executioner at Arras,

* Rossignol and nine other Septembriseurs of the Abbaye and the Carmelites, and, finally, the great apostle of despotic communism,

* Babeuf, who, sentenced to twenty years in irons for the falsification of public contracts, and as needy as he is vicious, rambles about Paris airing his disappointed ambitions and empty pockets along with the swaggering crew who, if not striving to reach the throne by a new massacre,[3305] tramp through the streets slipshod, for lack of money "to redeem a pair of boots at the shoemakers," or to sell some snuff-box their last resource, for a morning dram.[3306]

In this class we see the governing rabble fully and distinctly. Separated from its forced adherents and the official robots who serve it as they would any other power, it stands out pure and unalloyed by any neutral influx; we recognize here the permanent residue, the deep, settled slime of the social sewer. It is to this sink of vice and ignorance that the revolutionary government betakes itself for its staff-officers and its administrative bodies.

Nowhere else could they be found. For the daily task imposed upon them, and which must be done by them, is robbery and murder; excepting the pure fanatics, who are few in number, only brutes and blackguards have the aptitudes and tastes for such business. In Paris, as in the provinces, it is from the clubs or popular associations in which they congregate, that they are sought for.—Each section of Paris contains one of these clubs, in all forty-eight, rallied around the central club in the Rue St. Honore, forty-eight district alliances of professional rioters and brawlers, the rebels and blackguards of the social army, all the men and women incapable of devoting themselves to a regular life and useful labor,[3307] especially those who, on the 31st of May and 2nd of June, had aided the Paris Commune and the "Mountain" in violating the Convention. They recognize each other by this sign that, "each would be hung in case of a counter-revolution,"[3308] laying it down "as an incontestable fact that, should a single aristocrat be spared, all of them would mount the scaffold."[3309] They are naturally wary and they stick together: in their clique "everything is done on the basis of good fellowship;"[3310] no one is admitted except on the condition of having proved his qualifications "on the 10th of August and 31st of May."[3311] And, as they have made their way into the Commune and into the revolutionary committees behind victorious leaders, they are able, through the certificates of civism which these arbitrarily grant or refuse, to exclude, not only from political life but, again, from civil life, whoever is not of their party.