HISTORY OF EUROPE. lU 



made In his journal, bad proceeded 

 so far 3s to 'procure a black crape 

 to be thrown ovtr the table of the 

 Rights of Man, set up in the hall 

 of the Cordeliers. This was a ma- 

 nifest insinuation that the ruling 

 powers were guilty of infringe- 

 ments on the liberty of the public. 

 He had even the boldness to make 

 a formal speech in the Tribune at 

 a meeting of the club, where he 

 openly and unequivocally declared, 

 that tyranny existed in the republic. 

 This assertion of Hebert was con- 

 strued into a denunciation of Ro- 

 bespierre and his party ; who de- 

 termined instantly to sacrifice him 

 to their vengeance and security, as 

 a man who, if suffered to proceed 

 in the plan it mms clear he iiad 

 adopted, might ultimately effect 

 their ruin. He had already excited 

 an insurrection in one of the sec- 

 tions into which Paris was divided j 

 and it was not without some pains 

 that others were prevented fiom 

 joining it. To obviate farther con- 

 sequences, he was arrested on the 

 13th of March, with his principal 

 associates, and brought before the 

 revolutionary tribunal. Here he 

 denied the intention of implicating 

 Robespierre in his deiuuiciations 

 of the other members of the Con- 

 vention, against whom his publi- 

 cations were levelled. But his fall 

 was decreed, and a long catalogue 

 of treasonable actions produced 

 against him and his party. They 

 were accused of &)nspiriog to res- 

 tore a despotic goviMiunent, and to 

 massacre the Convention : and in 

 this conspiracy it was alleged, they 

 were the agents ot the coalition, 

 by whom they had been promised 

 pecuniary rewards, and the highest 

 promotions. The* chiefs of the 

 conspiracy bad assigned a part to 



each of the conspirators. A mate- 

 rial part was, to explore the houses 

 of arrest, and collect the names of 

 those prisoners who appeared the 

 most proper for tlie execution of 

 their designs. Hebert, in parti- 

 cular, in conjunction with another, 

 was charged with calumniating in- 

 discriminately good and bad citi- 

 zens ; the more readily to preju- 

 dice the public against the former, 

 by involving them in the same 

 accusation with the latter, of causing 

 a scarcity of provisions which was 

 in reality occasioned by the cun=;pi- 

 rators themselves, to the great in- 

 jury of the service. They had, 

 with a malicious design, procured 

 the table of the Rights of Man to 

 be covered with a black veil. They 

 frequented public places, in order 

 to make defamatory speeches a- 

 galnst the Convention and the 

 Committees of Public and General 

 Safety, and to inculcate the neces- 

 sity of a new rep'resentatlon. In 

 conjunction with such public func- 

 tionaries as abetted the conspiracy, 

 they prevented Paris from being 

 duly supplied with provisions, in 

 order to accelerate, by scarcity and 

 discontent, the period they were 

 aimingat for the compassingof their ■ 

 designs, which they intended to 

 execute by means of the revoluti- 

 onary army. This artificial scar- 

 city they found meaiis to increase 

 dciily, aod to attribute it to the 

 Convention, in order to expose 

 them to the rage of the people. 

 One of the conspirators liad ioimed 

 a plan to vilify the Convention, by 

 dressing out puppets in the conven- 

 tional habit, and exhibiting them 

 to the populace as perfect resem- 

 blances of the national re^iresenta- 

 tives, who, while they recom- 

 mended simplicity of manne\s ami 

 / U, apparel. 



