[3] The reader should be warned that these numbers are hotly disputed.
The latest authority will allow no more than 4000. After a full
consultation of the evidence I can reduce the garrison to no less than
6000.
[4] The legend that Danton was connected with the massacres is based on
insufficient historical foundation. There are several second or third
hand stories in support of it, but the chief positive evidence brought
forward in this connection is the stamped paper of the Minister of
Justice which, it has been amply proved by Dr. Robinet, was taken by a
subordinate and without Danton’s knowledge or complicity. To the much
stupider story that the Federals of Marseilles took part in the
massacres, the modern student need pay no attention; it has been
destroyed piecemeal and on indefeasible documentary evidence in the
monograph of Pollio and Marcel.
[5] On p. 403 of my monograph on Danton (Nisbet & Co., 1899) the reader
will find an unpublished report of the Committee of Public Safety, drawn
up immediately before the destruction of the Girondins on the 31st of
May. It forms, in my view, conclusive evidence, read in the light of
their other actions, of the Committee’s determination to side with
Paris.
V