The Reign of Terror and its Secret Police
(Studies in Modern Mind, etc.), chapter 7._
_The Reign of Terror:
A collection of authentic narratives,
2 volumes._
{1306}
FRANCE: A. D. 1794 (July).
The Fall of Robespierre.
End of the Reign of Terror.
Robespierre "was already feeling himself unequal to the task
laid upon him. He said himself on one occasion: 'I was not
made to rule, I was made to combat the enemies of the
Revolution;' and so the possession of supreme power produced
in him no feeling of exultation. On the contrary, it preyed
upon his spirits, and made him fancy himself the object of
universal hatred. A guard now slept nightly at his house, and
followed him in all his walks. Two pistols lay ever at his
side. He would not eat food till some one else had tasted from
the dish. His jealous fears were awakened by every sign of
popularity in another. Even the successes of his generals
filled him with anxiety, lest they should raise up dangerous
rivals. He had, indeed ... grounds enough for anxiety. In the
Committee of Public Safety every member, except St. Just and
Couthon, viewed him with hatred and suspicion. Carnot resented
his interferences. The Terrorists were contemptuous of his
religious festivals, and disliked his decided supremacy. The
friends of Mercy saw with indignation that the number of
victims was increasing. The friends of Disorder found
themselves restrained, and were bored by his long speeches
about virtue and simplicity of life. He was hated for what was
good and for what was evil in his government; and meanwhile
the national distress was growing, and the cry of starvation
was heard louder than ever. Fortunately there was a splendid
harvest in 1794; but before it was gathered in Robespierre had
fallen. A somewhat frivolous incident did much to discredit
him. A certain old woman named Catherine Théot, living in an
obscure part of Paris, had taken to seeing visions. Some of
the Terrorists produced a paper, purporting to be written by
her, and declaring that Robespierre was the Messiah. The paper
was a forgery, but it served to cover Robespierre with
ridicule, and to rouse in him a fierce determination to
suppress those whom he considered his enemies in the Committee
and the Convention. For some time he had taken little part in
the proceedings of either of these bodies. His reliance was
chiefly on the Jacobin Club, the reorganized Commune, and the
National Guards, still under the command of Henriot. But on
July 26th [8th Thermidor] Robespierre came to the Convention
and delivered one of his most elaborate speeches, maintaining
that the affairs of France had been mismanaged; that the army
had been allowed to become dangerously independent; that the
Government must be strengthened and simplified; and that
traitors must be punished. He made no definite proposals, and
did not name his intended victims. The real meaning of the
speech was evidently that he ought to be made Dictator, but
that in order to obtain his end, it was necessary to conceal
the use he meant to make of his power. The members of the
Convention naturally felt that some of themselves were aimed
at. Few felt themselves safe; but Robespierre's dominance had
become so established that no one ventured at first to
criticize. It was proposed, and carried unanimously, that the
speech should be printed and circulated throughout France.
Then at length a deputy named Cambon rose to answer
Robespierre's attacks on the recent management of the
finances. Finding himself favourably listened to, he went on
to attack Robespierre himself. Other members of the hitherto
docile Convention now took courage; and it was decided that
the speech should be referred to the Committees before it was
printed. The crisis was now at hand. Robespierre went down as
usual to the Jacobin Club, where he was received with the
usual enthusiasm. The members swore to die with their leader,
or to suppress his enemies. On the following day [9th
Thermidor] St. Just attacked Billaud and Collot. Billaud
[followed and supported by Tallien] replied by asserting that
on the previous night the Jacobins had pledged themselves to
massacre the deputies. Then the storm burst. A cry of horror
and indignation arose; and as Billaud proceeded to give
details of the alleged conspiracy, shouts of 'Down with the
tyrant!' began to rise from the benches. Robespierre vainly
strove to obtain a hearing. He rushed about the chamber,
appealing to the several groups. As he went up to the higher
benches on the Left, he was met with the cry, 'Back, tyrant,
the shade of Danton repels you!' and when he sought shelter
among the deputies on the Right, and actually sat down in
their midst, they indignantly exclaimed, 'Wretch, that was
Vergniaud's seat!' Baited on all sides, his attempts to speak
became shrieks, which were scarcely audible, however, amid the
shouts and interruptions that rose from all the groups. His
voice grew hoarser ... till at length it failed him
altogether. Then one of the Mountain cried, 'The blood of
Danton chokes him!' Amid a scene of indescribable excitement
and uproar, a decree was passed that Robespierre and some of
his leading followers should be arrested. They were seized by
the officers of the Convention, and hurried off to different
prisons; so that, in case of a rescue, only one of them might
be released. There was room enough for fear. The Commune
organized an insurrection, as soon as they heard what the
Convention had done; and by a sudden attack the prisoners were
all delivered from the hands of their guards. Both parties now
hastily gathered armed forces. Those of the municipality were
by far the most numerous, and Henriot confidently ordered them
to advance. But the men refused to obey. The Sections mostly
declared for the Convention, and thus by an unexpected
reaction the Robespierian leaders found themselves almost
deserted. A detachment of soldiers forced their way into the
room where the small band of fanatics were drawing up a
Proclamation. A pistol was fired; and no one knows with
certainty whether Robespierre attempted suicide, or was shot
by one of his opponents. At any rate his jaw was fractured,
and he was laid out, a ghastly spectacle, on an adjacent
table. The room was soon crowded. Some spat at the prostrate
form. Others stabbed him with their knives. Soon he was
dragged [along with Couthon, St. Just, Henriot, and others]
before the Tribunal which he himself had instituted. The,
necessary formalities were hurried through, and the mangled
body was borne to the guillotine, where what remained to him
of life was quickly extinguished. Then, from the crowd, a man
stepped quickly up to the blood-stained corpse, and uttered
over him the words, 'Yes, Robespierre, there is a God!'"
_J. E. Symes.
The French Revolution,
chapter 13._
{1307}
"Samson's work done, there bursts forth shout on shout of
applause. Shout, which prolongs itself not only over Paris,
but over France, but over Europe, and down to this generation.
Deservedly, and also undeservedly. O unhappiest Advocate of
Arras, wert thou worse than other Advocates? Stricter man,
according to his Formula, to his Credo and his Cant, of
probities, benevolences, pleasures-of-virtue, and suchlike,
lived not in that age. A man fitted, in some luckier settled
age, to have become one of those incorruptible barren
Pattern-Figures, and have had marble-tablets and
funeral-sermons. His poor landlord, the Cabinet-maker in the
Rue Saint-Honorè, loved him; his Brother died for him. May God
be merciful to him and to us! This is the end of the Reign of
Terror; new glorious Revolution named 'of Thermidor'; of
Thermidor 9th, year 2; which being interpreted into old
slave-style means 27th of July, 1794."
_T. Carlyle,
The French Revolution,
book 6, chapter 7 (volume 3)._
"He [Robespierre] had qualities, it is true, which we must
respect; he was honest, sincere, self-denying and consistent.
But he was cowardly, relentless, pedantic, unloving, intensely
vain and morbidly envious. ... He has not left the legacy to
mankind of one grand thought, nor the example of one generous
and exalted action."
_G. H. Lewes,
Life of Robespierre.
Conclusion._
"The ninth of Thermidor is one of the great epochs in the
history of Europe. It is true that the three members of the
Committee of Public Safety [Billaud, Collot, and Barère],
who triumphed were by no means better men than the three
[Robespierre, Couthon, and St. Just], who fell. Indeed, we are
inclined to think that of these six statesmen the least bad
were Robespierre and St. Just, whose cruelty was the effect of
sincere fanaticism operating on narrow understandings and
acrimonious tempers. The worst of the six was, beyond all
doubt, Barère, who had no faith in any part of the system
which he upheld by persecution."
_Lord Macaulay,
Barère's Memoirs
(Essays, volume 5)._
ALSO IN
_G. Everitt,
Guillotine the Great,
chapter 2._
_J. W. Croker,
Robespierre (Quarterly Review,
September, 1835, volume 34)._
_W. Chambers,
Robespierre
(Chambers' Edin. Journal, 1852)._
FRANCE: A. D. 1794-1795 (July-April).
Reaction against the Reign of Terror.
The Thermidorians and the Jeunesse Doree.
End of the Jacobin Club.
Insurrection of Germinal 12.
Fall of the Montagnards.
The White Terror in the Provinces.
"On the morning of the 10th of Thermidor all the people who
lived near the prisons of Paris crowded on the roofs of their
houses and cried, 'All is over! Robespierre is dead!' The
thousands of prisoners, who had believed themselves doomed to
death, imagined themselves rescued from the tomb. Many were
set free the same day, and all the rest regained hope and
confidence. Their feeling of deliverance was shared throughout
France. The Reign of Terror had become a sort of nightmare
that stifled the nation, and the Reign of Terror and
Robespierre were identical in the sight of the great majority.
... The Convention presented a strange aspect. Party remnants
were united in the coalition party called the 'Thermidorians.'
Many of the Mountaineers and of those who had been fiercest in
their missions presently took seats with the Right or Centre;
and the periodic change of Committees, so long contested, was
determined upon. Lots were drawn, and Barère, Lindet, and
Prieur went out; Carnot, indispensable in the war, was
re-elected until the coming spring; Billaud and Collot,
feeling out of place in the new order of things, resigned.
Danton's friends now prevailed; but, alas! the Dantonists were
not Danton."
_H. Martin,
Popular History of France from the First Revolution,
chapter 22 (volume l)._
"The Reign of Terror was practically over, but the
ground-swell which follows a storm continued for some time
longer. Twenty-one victims suffered on the same day with
Robespierre, 70 on the next; altogether 114 were condemned and
executed in the three days which followed his death. ... A
strong reaction against the 'Terreur' now set in. Upwards of
10,000 'suspects' were set free, and Robespierre's law of the
22 Prairial was abolished. Fréron, a leading Thermidorien,
organized a band of young men who called themselves the
Jeunesse Dorée [gilded youth], or Muscadins, and chiefly
frequented the Palais Royal. They wore a ridiculous dress, 'a
la Victime' [large cravat, black or green collar, and crape
around the arm, signifying relationship to some of the victims
of the revolutionary tribunal.--Thiers], and devoted
themselves to punishing the Jacobins. They had their hymn, 'Le
réveil du Peuple.' which they sang about the street, often
coming into collision with the sans-culottes shouting the
Marseillaise. On the 11th of November the Muscadins broke open
the hall of the celebrated club, turned out the members, and
shut it up for ever. ... The committees of Salut Public and
Sureté Générale were entirely remodelled and their powers much
restrained; also the Revolutionary Tribunal was reorganized on
the lines advocated by Camille Desmoulins in his proposal for
a Comité de Clémence--which cost him his life. Carrier and
Lebon suffered death for their atrocious conduct in La Vendée
and [Arras]; 73 members who had protested against the arrest
of the Girondins were recalled, and the survivors of the
leading Girondists, Louvet, Lanjuinais, Isnard,
Larévillière-Lépeaux and others, 22 in number, were restored
to their seats in the Convention."
_Sergent Marceau,
Reminiscences of a Regicide,
part 2, chapter 12._
"Billaud, Collot, and other marked Terrorists, already
denounced in the Convention by Danton's friends, felt that
danger was every day drawing nearer to themselves. Their fate
was to all appearance sealed by the readmission to the
Convention (December 8) of the 73 deputies of the right,
imprisoned in 1793 for signing protests against the expulsion
of the Girondists. By the return of these deputies the
complexion of the Assembly was entirely altered. ... They now
sought to undo the work of the Convention since the
insurrection by which their party had been overwhelmed. They
demanded that confiscated property should be restored to the
relatives of persons condemned by the revolutionary courts;
that emigrants who had fled in consequence of Terrorist
persecutions should be allowed to return; that those deputies
proscribed on June 2,1793, who yet survived, should be
recalled to their seats. The Mountain, as a body, violently
opposed even the discussion of such questions. The
Thermidorians split into two divisions. Some in alarm rejoined
the Mountain; while others, headed by Tallien and Fréron,
sought their safety by coalescing with the returned members of
the right. A committee was appointed to report on accusations
brought against Collot, Billaud, Barère, and Vadier (December
27, 1794). In a few weeks the survivors of the proscribed
deputies entered the Convention amidst applause (March 8,
1795). ... There was at this time great misery prevalent in
Paris, and imminent peril of insurrection.
{1308}
After Robespierre's fall, maximum prices were no longer
observed, and assignats were only accepted in payment of goods
at their real value compared with coin. The result was a rapid
rise in prices, so that in December prices were double what
they had been in July, and were continuing to rise in
proportion as assignats decreased in value. ... The maximum
laws, already a dead letter, were repealed (December 24). The
abolition of maximum prices and requisitions increased the
already lavish expenditure of the Government, which, to meet
the deficit in its revenues, had no resource but to create
more assignats, and the faster these were issued the faster
they fell in value and the higher prices rose. In July 1794,
they had been worth 34 per cent. of their nominal value. In
December they were worth 22 per cent., and in May 1795 they
were worth only 7 per cent. ... At this time a pound of bread
cost eight shillings, of rice thirteen, of sugar seventeen,
and other articles were all proportionately dear. It is
literally true that more than half the population of Paris was
only kept alive by occasional distributions of meat and other
articles at low prices, and the daily distribution of bread at
three half-pence a pound. In February, however, this source of
relief threatened to fail. ... On April 1, or Germinal 12,
bread riots, begun by women, broke out in every section. Bands
collected and forced their way into the Convention, shouting
for bread, but offering no violence to the deputies. ... The
crowd was already dispersing when forces arrived from the
sections and cleared the House. The insurrection was a
spontaneous rising for bread, without method or combination.
The Terrorists had sought, but vainly, to obtain direction of
it. Had they succeeded, the Mountain would have had an
opportunity of proscribing the right. Their failure gave the
right the opportunity of proscribing the left. The
transportation to Cayenne of Billaud, Collot, Barère, and
Vadier was decreed, and the arrest of fifteen other
Montagnards, accused without proof, in several cases without
probability, of having been accomplices of the insurgents. ...
The insurrection of Germinal 12 gave increased strength to the
party of reaction. The Convention, in dread of the Terrorists,
was compelled to look to it for support. ... In the
departments famine, disorder, and crime prevailed, as well as
in Paris. ... From the first the reaction proceeded in the
departments with a more rapid step and in bolder form than in
Paris. ... In the departments of the south-east, where the
Royalists had always possessed a strong following, emigrants
of all descriptions readily made their way back; and here the
opponents of the Republic, instigated by a desire for
vengeance, or merely by party spirit, commenced a reaction
stained by crimes as atrocious as any committed during the
course of the revolution. Young men belonging to the upper and
middle classes were organised in bands bearing the names of
companies of Jesus and companies of the Sun, and first at
Lyons, then at Aix, Toulon, Marseilles, and other towns, they
broke into the prisons and murdered their inmates without
distinction of age or sex. Besides the Terrorist and the
Jacobin, neither the Republican nor the purchaser of State
lands was safe from their knives; and in the country numerous
isolated murders were committed. This lawless and brutal
movement, called the White Terror in distinction to the Red
Terror preceding Thermidor 9, was suffered for weeks to run
its course unchecked, and counted its victims by many
hundreds, spreading over the whole of Provence, besides the
departments of Rhone, Gard, Loire, Ain, and Jura."
_B. M. Gardiner,
The French Revolution,
chapter 10._
ALSO IN
_A. Thiers,
History of the French Revolution (American edition),
volume 3, pages 109-136; 149-175; 193-225._
_H. von Sybel,
History of the French Revolution,
book 12, chapters 1-3._
_J. Mallet du Pan,
Memoirs and Correspondence,
volume 2, chapters 5._
_A. des Echerolles,
Early Life,
volume 2, chapter 8._
FRANCE: A. D. 1794-1795 (October-May).
Subjugation of Holland.
Overthrow of the Stadtholdership.
Establishment of the Batavian Republic.
Peace of Basle with Prussia.
Successes on the Spanish and Italian frontiers.
Crumbling of the Coalition.