37S FRANCE. 



were frivolous and incredible, and few of them appeared to be suffi- 

 ciently substantiated by evidence ; but had the conduct of Marie An- 

 toinette been more unexceptionable than there is reason to believe it 

 was, it is not very probable that she would have escaped. After an 

 hour's consultation, therefore, the jury brought in their verdict — 

 *' Guilty of all the charges." 



The queen heard the sanguinary sentence with dignity and resig- 

 nation ; perhaps, indeed, it might be considered by her less as a pu- 

 nishment than as a release. On the 16th of October, at about ele- 

 ven o'clock in the forenoon, she was conducted in a coach, from the 

 prison of the Conciergerie, to a scaffold prepared in the Place de la 

 Revolution, where her unfortunate husband had previously suffered. 

 The people, who crowded the streets as she passed, exhibited no 

 signs of pity or compunction. Her behaviour, as her last sufferings 

 approached, was decent and composed. She met her fate in the thirty- 

 eighth year of her age. 



Soon after the convention had brought the queen to the scaffold, 

 they entered upon the trial of Brissot, and his supposed accomplices. 

 Brissot was charged with having said and written, at the commence- 

 ment of the revolution, that Fayette's retiring from the public service 

 was a national misfortune ; with having distinguished himself three 

 times in the Jacobin club by speeches, of which one provoked the 

 ruin of the colonies, another the massacre of the patriots in the Champ 

 de Mars, and the third the war against Austria. 



Upon these and other vague accusations, Brissot, and twenty-one 

 more of the convention, were brought to trial before the revolutionaiy 

 tribunal, on the 24th of October; a few days afterwards the jury de- 

 clared all the accused members to be accomplices in a conspiracy 

 which had existed against the unity and indivisibility of the French 

 republic ; and the tribunal immediately condemned them all to the 

 punishment of death. Valaze, after he had heard his sentence, stab- 

 bed himself ; and the remaining twenty-one were executed on the 

 30th of October. 



The wretched and intriguing Egalite, late duke of Orleans, was 

 soon after brought to the block. He was accused of having aspired 

 to the sovereignty from the commencement of the revolution ; but 

 how well founded the charge was, it is not easy to determine. He 

 was conveyed in a cart, on the evening of the 6th of November, to 

 the place of execution ; and suffered with great firmness amidst the 

 insults and reproaches of the populace. 



In the south of France, neither the exertions of the allies, nor the 

 surrender of the Toulonese, were sufficient to produce the expected 

 consequence of establishing a monarchical government. On the 30th 

 of November, the garrison of Toulon made a vigorous sortie, in order 

 to destroy some batteries which the French were erecting on cer- 

 tain heights within cannon-shot of the city. The detachment sent 

 for this purpose accomplished it; and the French troops were sur- 

 prised, and fled. The allies, too much elated with their success, 

 pursued the fugitives till they unexpectedly encountered a consider- 

 able force which had been sent to cover their retreat. At this 

 moment, general O'Hara, commander in chief at Toulon, came up ; 

 and, while he was exerting himself to bring off his troops with regu- 

 larity, received a wound in his arm, and was made prisoner by the 

 republicans. Near a thousand of the British and allied forces were 

 killed, wounded, or taken prisoners, on this occasion. 



