196 BAILLY. 



decision or doubt. He needs not high-flown expressions 

 or protestations in order to convince ; nor would an oath 

 add authority to his words. He may be deceived, but he 

 is never the deceiver. 



I will spare no effort to give to the description of the 

 latter part of Bailly's life, all the correctness which can 

 result from a sincere and conscientious comparison of the 

 writings published as well by the partisans as by the 

 enemies of our great revolution. Such, however, is my 

 desire to prevent two phases, though very distinct, being 

 confounded together, that I shall here pause, in order to 

 cast a scrupulous glance on the actions and on the various 

 publications of our colleague. I shall moreover thus 

 have an easy opportunity of filling up some important 

 lacunae. 



I read in a biographical article, otherwise very friendly, 

 that Bailly was nominated the very day of, and immedi- 

 ately after, the assassination of M. de Flesselles ; and in 

 this identity the wish was to insinuate that the first Mayor 

 of Paris received this high dignity from the bloody hands 

 of a set of wretches. The learned biographer, notwith- 

 standing his good will, has ill repelled the calumny. 

 With a little more attention he would have succeeded 

 better. A simple comparison of dates would have suf- 

 ficed. The death of M. de Flesselles occurred on the 

 14th of July ; Bailly was nominated two days after. 



I will address the same remark to the authors of a Bio- 

 graphical Dictionary still more recent, in which they 

 speak of the ineffectual efforts that Bailly made to pre- 

 vent the multitude from murdering the governor of the 

 Bastille (de Launay). But Bailly had no opportunity of 

 making an effort, for he was then at Versailles ; no duty 

 called him to Paris, nor did he become Mayor till two 



