FRA 
march out with a firm ftep and unruffled countenance ; 
and I faw five-and-twenty of the mod refpeiftable mer¬ 
chants of Sedan go to death, without exprefling a regret, 
except for ten thoufand labourers whom their murder 
would deprive of employment.” 
Entertaining counter-revolutionary projects, favouring 
the progrefs of the enemy, degrading the national repre- 
fentation, or creating confpiracies in the prifons, were 
the mod frequent grounds of accufation ; but a word or a 
look was fufficient to infure condemnation; and many 
women whom defpair made defirous of death, wliile na¬ 
ture (huddered at the thought of fuicide, made the exe¬ 
cutioner their ailaffin, by merely crying Vive le roi. The 
early operations of the revolutionary tribunal infiituted by 
Robefpierre, fent only ten or fifteen daily to the fcatfold, 
but the carts were fubfequently loaded with lixty or four- 
fcore victims; (till the prifons were more and more crowd¬ 
ed, and it was even intimated that the fufpeCted would 
be (hot, by a thoufand at a time, in the Champ de Mars. 
The princefs Elizabeth, filter of Louis XVI. now fell a 
victim to this revolutionary tribunal. Her whole life 
had been exempt from reproach, and remarkable only 
for benevolence and piety. She was brought before the 
court on the 10th of May, and charged with having en. 
couraged undue diftinCtion to her nephew the dauphin, 
and directed his attention to fuch topics as were calcu¬ 
lated to re-e(tablifh royalty; (he was condemned to death 
with twenty-four other perfons, who were all convicted 
as accomplices in this unfounded confpiracy. The princefs 
was executed laft, and bore her fate with the ferenity of 
confcious innocence. 
M. Lamoignon de Malefiierbes had been confidered by 
all parties as one of the beft and mod enlightened men in 
France ; but his laft public adt, that of appearing as coun- 
fel for his fovereign, now pointed him out to the French 
government as a fit objeCt of perfecution ; he was arrefted 
on a charge, arifing out of letters which had been fent to 
him during the trial of his auguft client, of having cor- 
refponded with the enemy. At the age of feventy-four 
he was immured in a loathfome prifon ; and on the 22d 
of April he was found guilty and executed, with his 
whole family. D’Eftaing, who had fo nobly fought for 
France in his early life ; the duke de Biron, who had 
been intruded with a command in La Vendee; Thouret, 
who had (hewn a defire to accommodate himfelf to the 
prevalent opinion, whether for monarchy, or a republic; 
and d’Efpremenil, once the idol of the people for his 
ftrenuous perfecution of the late king, now all perifned 
on the fcaffold together. 
In moft of thefe executions, fome forced plea of policy 
might be alleged; the influence, political talents, or for¬ 
mer popularity, of the fuft'ereits, might afford a motive 
for their deftruCtion ; but in fome inftances, exclufively of 
the poor women, perfons feem to have been facrificed 
merely becaufe they were celebrated. Such was un¬ 
doubtedly the cafe with the unoffending Lavoifier, the 
famous chemift : he petitioned only fora few days refpite, 
to witnefs the refult of fome experiments; but the re- 
queft was denied with a brutal reflection, that the repub¬ 
lic wanted good citizens, and not good chemifts. Roucher, 
author of a poem called Les Mois, was condemned to death, 
though guilty of no crime. Equally cruel was the fate 
of baron Trenck, who, after aftonifhing the world with 
accounts of his bufferings in his own country, found his 
death in France, where he expedited an afylum under the 
foftering wings of a philofophical republic. 
But, while the wantonnefs of thefe facrifices (hocked 
the univerfe, a fenfation widely different was excited 
when thofe who had been moft forward in promoting 
thefe acts of cruelty came, in their turn, to feel the pain 
and punifhment which they had, in their day of exulta¬ 
tion, fo unfparingly inflicted on others. A diffenfion was 
beginning to rife between the clubs of Jacobins and Cor¬ 
deliers; and Robefpierre, who had refolved on the de¬ 
struction of the Cordeliers, as well as of Danton and fe. 
N C E. * . 799 
veral other of his colleagues, obferved with fatisfaCtion, 
that their divifion would render them the inffruments of 
mutual deftruCtion. He determined to get rid of Hebert, 
who was at the head of the Cordeliers, and his afl'ociateS, 
firft, as the moft daring and dangerous. Hebert, alarmed 
for his fafety, took advantage of Robefpierre’s illnefs, 
and endeavoured, by means of the Cordeliers, to excite 
the people againft the Jacobins, but in vain. The feCtion 
of Marat declared itfelf in a ftate of infurrection, but the 
reft of the city would not follow the example. Hebert, 
from the tribune of the Cordeliers, declared that tyranny 
exifted, and cattfed a veil of black crape to be thrown 
over the Rights of Man. This meafure only precipitated 
his ruin : he was arrefted, together with Ronfin, Vincent, 
and feveral aftociates, and conducted to the Conciergerie, 
tied hand and foot. He was brought before the revolu¬ 
tionary tribunal, together with nineteen others,-viz. Ron¬ 
fin, Vincent, Momoro, Ducroquet, Kolc, Lauritn, Bour- 
gebis, Mazuel, Labotireau, Aneard, Leclerc, Pereira, 
Latreille wife of tineau, Anacharfis Clootz, Desfiaux, 
Defcombes, Armand, Dubuitfon, and Proly. They were 
charged with a confpiracy, of the exiftence of which there 
.was not a (hadow of proof; but that did not prevent the 
jury from finding all the parties guilty, except Laboureau. 
Hebert, petrified with terror, did not fay a word in his 
defence. Clootz alone, of all this blood-thirfly band, 
feemed to retain his refolution and principles. The night 
which preceded their execution was pafled by the reft of 
the condemned in complaint and mutual recrimination, 
till Clootz exhorted them to die with refolution, and en¬ 
deavoured to confirm their atheiftical opinions, and ftifle 
the reproaches of confcience. They went to the guillo¬ 
tine with the heartfelt joy of the terrified inhabitants of 
Paris, who hoped to gain a refpite from the fanguinary 
and difgufting feenes which they had fo long excited and 
applauded. The club of Cordeliers, after a vain attempt 
to conciliate the Jacobins, now funk into infignificance, 
and fell to nothing. 
The triumph over the Cordeliers was not confined to 
the deftruCtion of thefe men, who had rendered themlelves 
odious by their cruelties; the more refpeCtable divifion 
of the cltibj thofe who had (hewn fome talent, and had 
even rendered important fervices to Robefpierre, were 
alfo marked for deftruCtion: Herault de Sechelles, Julien 
of Touloufe, Fabre d'Eglantiue, and fome other mem¬ 
bers, were arrefted by order of the committee of public 
fafety ; and foon after the death of Hebert and his gang, 
to the furprife of all, a decree of accufation went forth 
againft Danton, Cumille-Definoulins, Lacroix, and fome 
other members, as accomplicesjin. plots againft the fove- 
reignty of the people, and (ifffty of tiie republic. Not 
one among the members included in this decree could 
reafonably complain of injuftice on any general principle, 
yet all had a right to deem their deftiny hard and unjuft, 
conlioering the perfons by whom they were condemned. 
All were fanguinary, rapacious, and profligate, but all 
had rendered fervices to the revolution, and all had been 
invariably ranked among the moft vigorous enemies of the 
court, the firmed friends of the people, and the political 
adherents of the party who now doomed them to deftruc- 
tion. Camille-Defmoulins felt indignant at the treachery 
of Robefpierre, who had been his fellow-collegian, and 
who fpoke to him the very evening before bis arreft, with 
more than ufual appearance of cordiality and friendftiip. 
The add of accufation was framed from a report read 
by St. Juft to the convention; and Fabre d’Eglantine, 
Delanny, Chabot, Camille-Defmoulins, Lacroix, Philip- 
peaux, Bazire, Herault de Sechelles, and Danton, depu¬ 
ties, together with d’Efpagnac a contractor, two brothers 
named Frey, alfo contractors, natives of Moravia, Gnf- 
man a Spaniard, and Diederickl'en a Dane, were brought 
before the revolutionary tribunal. Fabre d’Eglantine ap¬ 
peared in great agony, and bad a chair allotted him ; but 
the lofty courage of Danton imparted fpirits to the reft. 
He laid his abode would foon be in a ftate of non-entity, 
3 but 
