£00 
FRA 
but his name would be found in the pantheon of hi dory. 
He refufed to anfwer interrogatories, unlefs confronted by 
Barrere and Robefpieire, his accufers; and amufed him- 
felf, while at the bar, with fnooting paper bullets in the 
face of the chief judge. The prelident was obliged to 
difpatch a mefl'enger to the convention, to obtain a decree 
empowering the jury to pafs fentence on refractory pri- 
foners ; but Robefpierre and Barrere refufed to attend, 
on pretence that there was a plot to affaflinate them. 
Though Danton had no hope of faving his life, he made 
a defence, that it might be tranfmitted to pofterity. In 
Vain the prelident endeavoured to filence him, his Sten¬ 
torian voice drowned the tinkling of the bell. “ Prifoner, 
(faid the magiftrate,) do you hear the bell?”—“ Preli¬ 
dent, (anfwered Danton,) the voice of a man defending 
his life and character, ought to filence your bell.” The 
people, unufed to fitch boldnefs, exprelled their difap- 
probationin murmurs. “ People,” he cried, “form your 
judgment of me when you have heard me ; what I fay 
ought to be heard, not only by you, but by all France: 
before fix months are pad, you will tear to pieces thofe 
who now fit in judgment on me, as well as the fcoundtels 
by whofe orders I am brought to trial. They have re¬ 
duced you to flavery, and are now facrificing you by 
piecemeal.” He was at length prevailed on to retire, 
under pretence of taking fome refrefhment; and in his 
abfence condemned, by virtue of the decree againd con¬ 
tumacious prifoners, which was now jud obtained from 
the convention. 
Sentence was pafled at three o’clock in the afternoon of 
April 5, and at fix the whole party was carried to the 
guillotine. Danton fubmitted to his fate with fortitude, 
and even affedted an extraordinary degree of pleafantry ; 
he quibbled with Fabre d’Eglantine, the poet, on the 
word vers, which fignifies worms as well as verfes. Nous 
allons tons etre poetes, car nous ferons des vers,” was his 
pun. He converfed cheerfully as he fat in the cart with 
his fellow-fufferers, and anfwered the infults of the mob 
b-y looks t>f fovereign contempt and indignation. His 
boldnefs in meeting death procured refpect, and even 
fympathy, which his general charadter would not have 
excited, and which was afliduoufly kept alive by his 
friends. See the article Danton, vol. v. p. 593. Ca- 
mille-Defmoulins fuftered with equal’firmnefs ; and his 
young, beautiful, and innocent, widow, was fhortly after¬ 
wards fent to the fcaffold, as a pretended accomplice in 
a confpiracy with general Dillon, in which Gobet, the 
apoftate bilbop of Paris, was alfo included. 
After thefe leading members of the revolution were 
thus difpofed of, and with a view to conciliate the regard 
of the more moderate and fenfible part of mankind, Ro- 
befpierre bent his thoughts to the recovery of France 
from the odious fiate of avowed atheifm into which fhe 
had been plunged by the Cordeliers; making his pro¬ 
ceedings towards that end equally conducive to his popu¬ 
larity and revenge. He had the fagacity to yield to the 
popular fury, fo long as the difqualification of priefis 
promifed a faving to the (fate, or the plunder of ffirines 
gratified the national avarice by new acquifitions of gold 
and filver ; but when opprefiion was no longer profitable, 
and profanenefs fo flagrant as to grow difgufting, he 
checked their career, and in the jacobin club, over which 
he had long ruled, he declared that “ thofe who wilhed to 
prevent the ceremony of the mafs, were greater fanatics 
than thofe who performed it; and that, under pretence 
of deflroying religion, a fadiion was endeavouring to 
make a religion of atheifm itfelf.” 
After overthrowing the faction he had thus for a time 
fuftained, Robefpierre began in earned: to execute his 
plan of reftoring religious freedom, by delivering in the 
convention a long report, in which he aferibed many 
of the plots againft the republic to atheifts, and pro¬ 
cured a decree, which, in comparifon to the late pro¬ 
ceedings, might be deemed favourable to religion, though 
viewed feparately it would appear more calculated to 
N C E. 
found a new fpecies 6 f idolatry. It formally acknow¬ 
ledged the exiftence of a Supreme Being and the immor¬ 
tality of the foul, and that the bed worlhip confided in 
pradtifing the duties of man, and provided for the free¬ 
dom of religious wordiip: but it alfo decreed that, on 
each decadi, fedivals diould be celebrated, the firft to 
the Supreme Being; others to the human race, or parti¬ 
cular dalles, as the French nation, and the martyrs of li¬ 
berty; fometimes virtues were to be idolized, as Mo- 
dedy and Integrity ; fometimes abftradl ideas, as Liberty 
and Equality ; or padions or fenliments, as Love, Difin- 
teredednefs, and the Hatred of Tyrants: the nation was 
occafionally to celebrate the various dages of human life, 
as Infancy, Youth, Old Age ; then its purfuits, as Agri¬ 
culture ; its accidents, as Succefs, Misfortune ; and fome- 
times the mortal caufes and effedls of man’s prefent exift¬ 
ence, his ancedors, and poderity. So grateful, however, 
was the acknowledgment of a Deity and the immortality 
of the foul, in -contradidlion to the oppodte dodlrines 
which had been advanced, that Robefpierre’s report was 
ordered to be mandated into all languages, and printed 
and didributed throughout the world’s domain. 
Previous to the day appointed for the fedival in honour 
of the Supreme Being, which was the 8th of June, Ro¬ 
befpierre got himfelf eledted prelident of the convention 5 
a nomination which was oppofed by only three or four 
voices. David the fancy-painter contrived the panto¬ 
mime, the courfe of march, paufes and embraces, the 
emblem reprefenting the deftruction of atheifm, the drefles 
and decorations of the members and females, their tri-co¬ 
loured plumes and fcarfs, their garlands of oak, and their 
nofegays of flowers and wheat-ears. Robefpierre ha- 
rangued the people in the gardens of the Thuilleries, and 
then proceeded to the Champ de Mars, where, among 
-other devices, an artificial mountain was eredted, to the 
top of which he climbed, while the reft of the conven¬ 
tion gained inferior heights; here he made another ha¬ 
rangue to the people, and the day terminated with hymns 
and chorufles to the honour of the Supreme Being. In 
all parts of the republic the authority of Robefpierre was 
now acknowledged : the committee of public fafety was 
devoted to his orders ; the convention in general moved 
only by the dictates of his will; his name gave autho¬ 
rity and fandtion to every act of government; and to him 
were more abjedt compliments, and a greater profufion of 
homage, paid, than to all the crowned heads in Europe. 
He was ftyled “the glorious incorruptible Robefpierre, 
who covers the republic with his virtues and talents as 
with a fhield!” 
To confirm this pre-eminence, and crufh for ever all 
who could hope to rival him in the public favour, nothing 
was wanting but a relaxation of the fyftem of terror, and 
a return to the long-negledled forms of jufticeand huma¬ 
nity. Hopes were entertained that fuch a reform was in¬ 
tended ; when the celebration of the grand feftival was 
marked as a day of mercy, the fittings of the revolu¬ 
tionary tribunal were fufpended, the operation of the guil¬ 
lotine flopped, and all arrefts forbidden. The next day 
but one, however, crufhed all thefe hopes; when Cou- 
thon, in the name of the committee of public fafety, ob¬ 
tained a decree extending beyond conception the delcrip- 
tion of counter-revolutionary crimes, abrogating the ne- 
cefiity of proofs, depriving the prifoners of official de¬ 
fenders, and augmenting the number of judges and jury¬ 
men of the revolutionary tribunal. This decree did not 
pafs, as all others had for a long period, without debate 
or animadverfion ; when it was read, Ruamps exclaimed, 
“ If this pafles into a law, nothing remains for the depu¬ 
ties but to blow out their brains.” Lecontre of Verfailles, 
Bourdon de l’Oife, and a few others, claimed an adjourn¬ 
ment of two days; but they were overruled by the art 
of Barrere, and the violence of Robefpierre, the latter of 
whom infilled, that he had defended the adherents of the 
Briffiotine party from the daggers of thofe who now affected 
to oppofe a decree not more extenfive than many others 
which 
