HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



119 



nipt in the extreme ; and spoke of 

 Dantonasonethatjliavingconspired 

 against the state, had no farther 

 claim to his regard ; and whom he 

 resigned to the justice of his offend- 

 ed country, as he had done Brissot, 

 Petion, and others of whom he 

 ceased to be the friend, the moment 

 they became enemies to the state. 

 Chabot,'Fabre d' Eglantine, and Ba- 

 ■ zire, who had been members of 

 the Convention, had, he said, been 

 refused the privilege of pleading 

 their cause before the Convention ; 

 and it would be violating the laws 

 of impartiality to grant to Danton 

 what was refi-sed to others, who had 

 an equal right to make the same 

 demand. This answer silenced at 

 once all solicitations in his favour. 



In the conspiracy attributed to 

 Fabre d'Eglantine, among the per- 

 sons accused as principal accom- 

 plices, were Heraalt Sechelles, who 

 had been president of the Con- 

 vention on the famous 31st of 

 May, the preceding year, when the 

 Gironde party was overthrown : an- 

 other was Chaumctte, procureur of 

 the commerce of Paris; well known 

 by his brutal behaviour to the King 

 on his tri^l. Among them was also 

 Gobat, who had been constitutional 

 Bishop of Paris, and had about 

 twelve months before publicly re- 

 nounced his functions and religion. 

 Ofthe same number waslikevvise Ge- 

 neral Westerman, who command- 

 ed the popular insurrection on the 

 celebrated lOth of August, \7i)2 ; 

 and who had so lately reported, with 

 such inhuman insolence and deri- 

 sion in the Convention, the barba- 

 rities con^initted by the repubhcans 

 in La V'endc-e. 



The second of April was ap- 

 pointed for the trial of the prison- 

 ers before the Revolutionary Tri- 

 ^>un*l. The charge preffrred 



against Danton, was, that he had 

 engaged in a conspiracy to destroy 

 the rep\iblican form of government, 

 together with the national represen- 

 tatives, and to effect a counter^ 

 revolution in favour of monarchy. 

 Camille Desmoulins, La Croix, 

 PhehpeauK, Herault, Sechelles, 

 and General Westerman, were in- 

 volved in the same accusation: 

 Fabre d'Eglantine and Chabot, 

 with the two Frays, his brothers-in- 

 law, both of them bankers of opu- 

 lence, and five persons of less note, 

 wf re accused of peculation and cor- 

 rupt practices. In order to blacken 

 the character of Fabre d'Eglantine, 

 but more probably to recommend 

 their own, he was, by the partisans 

 of Robespierre in the Convention, 

 described as a professed Atheist. 

 St. Just, one of his principal inti- 

 mates, insisted chiefly on this cir- 

 cumstance in the official report con- 

 cerning d'Eglantine, presented by 

 him to the members on this occa- 

 sion, and dwelt upon it as a suffi- 

 cient motive for his condemnation. 

 He made a long speech on the 

 subject of irreligion and immora- 

 lity, wherein he laboured with 

 affected warmth to impress those 

 who heard him with a persuasion, 

 that persons now at the head of 

 affairs were the sincere friends and 

 supporters of the doctrine incul- 

 cating the belief of Providence, 

 the immortality of the soul, and 

 the necessity of a public worship of 

 the Supreme Being. Whether the 

 speaker exprest his real sentiments, 

 as well as those of his party, or 

 whether he courted popularity for 

 hitncelf and for tjiem by displaying 

 a zeal for religion, certain it is, 

 that the baseness and cruelty of 

 which they were guilty at this very 

 period, and in tlie very instance 

 which occasioned this very remark- 

 / t able 



