803 
FRA 
tlie acclamations of numerous fpe&ators, who confidered 
the proceffion before them as the earned of future peace 
and fecurity. During this fatal progrefs, Robefpierre, 
pale and disfigured, held down his head, and never looked 
up, except once, when a woman, decently dreffed, ap¬ 
proached the cart, and uttered thofe deep-drawn male¬ 
dictions, which put it beyond conjecture that fhe was a 
mo.ther whom his cruelty had deprived of a fon, or a 
widow from whom he had dragged and murdered a huf- 
band. At hearing her horrible denunciations, Robef- 
fpierre lifted his eyes languidly towards her, and flirug- 
ging up his Ihoulders fetched a bitter figh. lie fuftered 
the laft but one : when he was about to be tied down, the 
executioner (batched the drefiing from his broken jaw, 
which immediately fell, and a profufion of blood gufiiei 
out; the chafm occafioned by the width of his mouth, 
owing to this accident, rendered his head, when fevered 
from his body and held up to public view, a mofi terrible 
and difgufting fpeClacle. On the enfuing day, July 29, 
the triumph of the convention was completed by the 
execution en majje of the fixty-two members of the com¬ 
mune, who had alfo been decreed out of the law. 
Thus, in a moment when leaft expeCted, perifhed Maxi¬ 
milian Robefpierre, in the thirty-ftxth year of his age. 
His life had been long a feries of perpetual provocations 
to an incenfed Deity ; arrd the circumfiances of his death 
afford a mofi ample vindication of eternal juftice. ^ He 
was cut off in the prime of life, and at the height of un¬ 
equalled exaltation, meditating new crimes, and unrepen¬ 
tant of thole already committed. He who had (lied blood 
with unexampled profufion, now went to the fcaffold of 
his own erecting, overwhelmed with infult, fcorn, and 
bitter reproach ; as his whole life had been a feene of the 
mod atrocious perfidy and cruelty ; fo the manner ot his 
death was the fulfilment of a juft retribution, in which an 
awful example was made to mankind, and anufeful leffon 
to all thofe who had fo often with him imbrued their 
hands in innocent blood. 
The partizans of the late fyftem of terror, deprived of 
their principal leader, were foon taught to tremble for 
their fafety by the fate of Carrier, who had covered La 
Vendee and the neighbouring departments with blood, 
and who had rendered the cup of death additionally bitter 
by his licentious invedtives and obfeene execrations, from 
the hearing of which no age or fex was exempt. Among 
the captives fet at liberty after the death of Robefpierre, 
were ninety-four inhabitants of Nantes, who had been 
forwarded to Fouquier Tinville by Carrier, charged 
with favouring the progrefs of federalifm, and who were 
intended for fpeedy execution. When thefe perfons had 
obtained their freedom, they were encouraged to inform 
againft their perfecutors, and for the fpace of three months 
new fadts of increaling horror and atrocity continued to 
be difclofed. The convention, on the 29th of Odtober, 
decreed that Carrier and his accomplices (hould be 
brought to trial ; and, contrary to their pradtice in the 
cafe of Robefpierre and his adherents, allowed them 
every means of defence provided by law for deputies in 
a ftate of accnfation. The accomplices of Carrier were 
firft impeached; but the general indignation juftly 
pointed out the futility of wreaking vengeance on thele 
fubordinateagents,while the great affadin was left in trium¬ 
phant impunity: the queftion was referred to a committee 
of twenty-one members of the convention ; and, in pur- 
fuance of their report, Carrier (food to be tried at the 
bar of the revolutionary tribunal. The horrible fadls 
difclofed againft him, produced in the bofom of the au¬ 
dience every extreme of paffion and fenfation which Rich 
narratives are calculated to excite ; but aftonifliment was 
lefs fixed on thefe atrocious crimes, than on the atrocious 
impudence with which the culprit defended, and even 
gloried in, them. “ I have extinguilhed (he faid) the 
torches of fanaticifm, which were fpreading conflagration 
through leveral departments ; but fix months ago my 
brows were bound with well-earned laurels j now accufiu 
N C E. 
tions are thundered againft me! The convention, at the 
time, approved my conduit, which had no motive but 
the welfare of my country. And thofe who accufe me, 
what would they have done in my place } Was it in the 
power of man—was it even in the power of the conven¬ 
tion, to prevent the exceffes which were committed at 
Lyons and at Toulon, in Aveyron and La Lozere, (liakett 
as they were by the fury of political temped ? Yet I have 
terminated a terrible civil war, which with gigantic feet 
threatened to trample down the whole republic. 1 had 
(worn, with my hand fpread on the altar, to fave my coun- 
try; and I have kept my oath. I have preferved Nantes-' 
to the republic: I calmly faced the furnace of Scaevola, 
the hemlock of Socrates, the death of Cicero, the fword 
of Cato, the fcaffold of Sydney ; I will endure their pains, 
if the good of the people requires it : I have lived only 
for my country, and for her I am ready to die.” Confi¬ 
dent alfertions could not, however, countervail the mafs 
of evidence which was adduced ; and Carrier, with Pinard 
and Grand Maifon, two of his principal fatellites, was 
fent to the fcaffold on the 26th of November ; the others 
were acquitted. Perhaps nothing in the fate of this 
wretch was more furprifing than his confidence in affirm¬ 
ing to the laft his innocence, and even his merit. When 
going to the place of execution, lie exclaimed, “ I die a 
guilt lefs victim ; I have done Nothing but execute the 
orders of the committees of government ; my laft prayers 
are for the republic, and the welfare of my fellow- 
citizens.” 
The feventy-three members imprifoned for fubferibing 
the proteft againft the tranfa&ions of the 31ft of May, 
1793, were ftill in confinement, and their friends had r.o 
appeal in their favour but through the medium of the 
prefs, as the ruling party continued boafting of the event 
which caufed their ruin as one of the glorious days of the 
revolution. Penieres had already moved that thofe under 
arreft (hould be enlarged, but, after an animated difeuf- 
fion, he could only obtain an order for referring their cafe 
to the committees. The alarm excited by the Jacobins 
had probably fome eftedl in the decifion, though it was 
not immediately fatisfadfory to their hopes; they were 
reftored to liberty, on the 2d of December, 1794, but 
their right of voting fufpended ; in a few days, however, 
they were reinftated in their feats, and foon afterwards 
were permitted to refuine all their legiflative functions, as 
it was thought their influence wouldcounteradt the furious 
Jacobins, and infure peace to the legillature; but they 
were no (boner re-admitted than they required a repeal ot 
the decree of outlawry againft the fugitive Briffotines, and 
appealed to the public againft the celebrated revolution of 
the 31ft of May, 1793. In the interim the partizans of 
Collot d’Herbois and the Mountain, were labouring to 
avert that inveftigation of which they had every reafonto 
dread the refillt. The Jacobins, though excluded from 
their hall, held fecret councils, endeavoured to agitate 
the public mind, and diftributed incendiary writings 
among the poor, attempting to perfuade them that the 
dreadful famine which ftill prevailed in Paris proceeded 
from a confpiracy of the ariftocrats, for the purpofe of 
compelling them to confent to the re-eftablifhment of 
royalty. The Jacobins, were, however, oppofed by men 
who knew their principles, and dreaded not to arraign 
their crimes; the conduct of Billaud de Varrenes, Collot 
d’Herbois, Barrere, And Vadier, was fubmitted to the 
immediate examination of a committee of twenty-one 
members. 
On the 1 ft of March, the convention received a w'ell- 
attefted detail of the crimes by which thefe culprits had 
difgraced humanity ; no one raifed his voice in favour of 
the parties accufed ; and their arreft w r as decreed by an 
immenfe majority. The trial of thefe four accufed per.- 
fons was ordered on the 22d of March; but previous to 
that period, Vadier had made his efcape. The others 
refted their defence upon this ground, that although, 
members of the committee of fafety, they had no power 
t# 
