HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



181 



Vithout distinction, Fouquier Tin- 

 ville, the public accuser, a man well 

 fitted for the bloody office with 

 which he was invested, formally 

 demanded that the Princess Eliza- 

 beth, sister to the late King, should 

 be cited to appear before the revo- 

 lutionary triljunal, on a suspicion of 

 being-concerned in counter-revoluti- 

 onary practices. The utterimpossi- 

 bility ihat a woman under the strict 

 confinement in which she was held, 

 should be accessary to any proceed- 

 ings of such a tendency, was so ob- 

 vious, that all Paris was struck with 

 amazement when told that she was 

 to undergo a trial. Her character 

 was in evpry sense unimpeachable. 

 Her piety and resignaiion to the 

 hard and undeserved treatment she 

 had So long endured. Lad lendered 

 her an object even of popular com- 

 miseration. When brought before 

 the revolutionary tribunal, she re- 

 plied to the questions put to her 

 with such unaffectedness,calmness, 

 and precision, tliat every one pre- 

 sent was convinced that she spoke 

 the strictest truth. To the various 

 cfcarges urged against her, she made 

 the most apposite and satisfactory 

 answers,andcompletelyclearedher- 

 sclf of every accusation. To that 

 of having encouraged her nephew 

 to hope that he would be one day 

 King of France, she frankly and 

 innocently replied, that in the fami- 

 liar intercourse between them, she 

 had employed every motive to com- 

 fort him in his melancholy situa- 

 tion. This ingenuous answer was 

 immediately interpreted as an ac- 

 knowledgment tiiat she had real'y 

 encouraged him inthatcxpeciationi 

 and sentence of death was passed 

 uponher. Shesufleredjincoinpany 

 with twenty -six others j and was ex- 

 ecuted the last. Shebchaved in her 



last moments with great dignity and 

 decency. 



These numerous and merciless 

 executions filled all France with 

 terror. This was the very end iii 

 view. But this terror was accom- 

 panied with equal horror; and pre- 

 pared all men to look \yith impa- 

 tience and anxiety for an alteration 

 of atl-airs. The sentiments of the 

 public werenot kept insuch secrecy 

 as not in some measure to transpire. 

 In order to preserve, in the mean 

 time, the attachment of the multi- 

 tude by that ostentatious display of 

 religion which is so captivating to 

 the unreflecting and the unwary, 

 Robespierre now adopted an idea 

 which he doubted not wouldbe of 

 the highest utility to his designs : 

 this was to set apart the tmith day 

 for religious and moral observance, 

 in imitation of the seventh in the 

 Christian system. He resolved 

 therefore, without delay, toincrease 

 the popularity he had already I'.c- 

 quii-ed, by introducing the subj.ct 

 of religion into the Convention, as 

 a point of the greatest importance, 

 and making such additional regu- 

 lations in the matters relating to it, 

 as might impress the people with a 

 conviction that he was sincere in his 

 professions. 



Full of this project, on the 7th of 

 May be ascended the tribune, and 

 made a long and elaborate speech^ 

 replete with the most turgid and 

 fulsomedescription of the fame and 

 grandeur whicli the French nation 

 had attained. The victories of the 

 republic, he said, were celebrated 

 in every quarter of the universe. 

 An entire revoli:tion had taken 

 place in the physicalorder of things, 

 wliich would indubitably produce 

 another in the moral and political. 

 One half of the globe had already 



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