250 BAILLY. 



able barbarity on the Champ de Mars. Merard St. Just, 

 the intimate friend of Bailly, has alluded by his initials 

 to a wretch who, the very day of our colleague's death, 

 publicly boasted of having electrified the few acolytes 

 who, together with him, insisted on the removal of the 

 scaffold ; the day after the execution, the meeting of the 

 Jacobins reechoed with the name of another individual 

 of the Gros Caillou, who also claimed his share of influ- 

 ence in the crime. 



I have progressively unrolled before you the series of 

 events in our revolution, in which Bailly took an active 

 part; I have scrupulously searched out the smallest cir- 

 cumstances of the deplorable affair on the Champ de 

 Mars ; I have followed our colleague in his proscription 

 to the Revolutionary Tribunal, and to the foot of the 

 scaffold. We had seen him before, surrounded by esteem, 

 by respect, and by glory, in the bosom of our principal 

 academies. Yet the work is not complete ; several essen- 

 tial traits are still wanting. 



I will therefore claim a few more minutes of your kind 

 attention. The moral life of Bailly is like those master- 



V 



pieces of ancient sculpture, that deserve to be studied in 

 every point of view, and in which new beauties are con- 

 tinually discovered, in proportion as the contemplation is 

 prolonged. 



PORTRAIT OF BAILLY. HIS WIFE. 



Nature did not endow Bailly generously with those 

 exterior advantages that please us at first sight. He was 

 tall and thin. His visage compressed, his eyes small and 

 sunk, his nose regular, but of unusual length, and a very 

 brown complexion, constituted an imposing whole, severe 

 and almost glacial. Fortunately, it was easy to perceive 



