:

given over to the guards, and to the insults and curses of the people. The Revolutionary tribunal sent him to the scaffold with his accomplices. On the 10th Thermidor, at 5 o'clock in the evening, he mounted the cart of death, and was placed between Henriot and Couthon; his head was wrapped in a bloody linen cloth; the crowd, which surrounded the cart gave way to their joy, congratulating each other, and loading him with imprecations. St. Just alone was calm, the other twenty-two condemned were cast down. Robespierre died the last; after his head fell the applause lasted several minutes. The death of Robespierre put an end to the reign of terror. However, two parties divided the Assembly the party of the Committee, which remained attached to the system of the Revolution, and that of the Mountain, composed of the "moderates." They created a sort of militia, so as to oppose the Jacobins, and called it La Jeunesse dorée de Fréron; their costume was called Costume à la Victime, and consisted of a square open coat, low shoes, and hair long on each side and turned up behind. They were armed with short sticks, leadened at their ends; they belonged to the rich or middle classes. On the 20th Breumaire the Jacobins were taken from the place of their sitting, and deposed; on the 21st the Convention declared that the society of Jacobins had ceased to exist. The exiled deputies of the 31st May re-took their places, and the decrees against the priests were revoked.

The trial of Billaud-Varennes was to commence on the 3rd Germinal. The people, who were suffering from famine, assembled on the 1st in the faubourgs, and marched towards the Convention asking for bread, the Constitution of '93, and the liberty of detained patriots. The Jeunesse dorée

dispersed them, but on the 12th Germinal the movement was more marked still. The 1st Prairial (May) the agitators declared the Revolutionary government abolished, the convention of '93 established, the convocation of a Legislative Assembly which should replace the Convention, and the suspension of all authority not emanating from the people; all citizens were engaged to take arms and to march on the Convention. The Convention declared itself a permanency, shut its doors, and out-lawed all the chiefs of this rising. However one door was forced open, and the women enter the tribunes crying: "Bread! And the Constitution of '93." The deputies preserve a firm countenance, and shots are fired in the room, the rebels took aim upon the president of the committee of subsistence, Boissy d'Anglas (surnamed Boissy Famine); a deputy rose to preserve him with his body, and fell covered with wounds; he was dragged into the lobby, and being taken for Fréron, his head was cut off, put upon a pike, and presented to Boissy d'Anglas, who uncovered and saluted it. The greater number of the deputies had escaped, and the rebels were nearly triumphant when the sections entered the room, bayonet in hand, and forced them to retreat. The Mountaineers were condemned to death, but they stabbed themselves with the same knife, which they passed one to the other, exclaiming : "Vive la Republique!" Three only wounded themselves mortally, the others died on the scaffold.

The faubourgs still had forces, the Assembly, therefore, ordered them to be disarmed, and the Constitution of '93 abolished.

The revolutionary arms were triumphant abroad; they were commanded by Jourdan, Pichegru, Hoche, Moreau, and

The Committee of Public Safety disposed of all under the name of the Convention, which served as its instrument; it named and dismissed the generals and ministers, and governed the departments. The party of Robespierre was allpowerful; the principal members were, St. Just, Couthon, Collet d'Herbois, Billaud, Varennes, Carnot, and Barrière.

The decimal system was now established, uniformity of weights and measures agreed upon, and the Gregorian era changed into Republican era. The year began the 22nd September, 1792, and was dated the First Year of Liberty. The month was of thirty days, and was divided into three decades, which took the place of the four weeks; the tenth day of each decade was set apart for rest, and was considered as the old Sunday.

The year beginning in Autumn the three first months were: "Vendemaire," September; "Brumaire," October; "Frimaire," November. For winter the months were: 66 Nivose,' 66 Pluviose," and "Ventose." "Germinal,"

Floréal," and "Prairial."

For Spring:

For Summer:

"Messidor," "Thermidor," and "Fructidor."

The five

days which remained were called Complimentary Days, and were reserved for national fêtes, under the name of "Sanscullottes." The first was set apart for the festival of Genius, the second for that of Work, the third for Heroic Actions, the fourth for Rewards, and the fifth for Opinion. In Leapyears the extra day was consecrated to the Revolution.

The Girondists were still persecuted. On the 2nd of June twenty-one of them were proscribed, and seventy-three of their colleagues, who had protested against their arrest, were imprisoned. Valazé stabbed himself with a poignard upon hearing his sentence. Lasource said to his judges:

"I die the day the people have lost their reason, you will die when they recover it." They died with courage, singing the "Marseillaise on their way to the scaffold.

The Duke of Orleans, suspected by all parties, was put to death on the 6th November, 1793. Bailly underwent his sentence on the 11th November; he was subjected to the outrages of the multitude during an entire day; the scaffold was moved for him to the Champ de Mars, because he was accused of having ordered the firing upon the people there. The rain, his age, and bad treatment made him tremble involuntarily: "You tremble, Bailly," said a soldier to him. 'My friend," replied the poor old man, "it is the cold."

66

The Commune then tried to abolish the Catholic religion, and forced Gobet, Bishop of Paris, to abjure Christianity at the bar of the Convention. The worship of reason was decreed, churches were transformed into temples for this divinity, and each decade brought new scandals. Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety blamed these measures, the Mountaineers became divided; Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Fabre d'Eglantine tried to stop the terror. Since the 31st May the conduct of Danton had appeared equivocal, he had stopped in his career and sought repose. Camille Desmoulins, also tried to stop the excesses of the Revolution, and to put some feelings of humanity into the people by his journal, Le vieux Cordelier. The "anarchists" were conducted before the Revolutionary tribunal, and condemned to death; they all perished on the scaffold, amidst the insults of the populace. The proscription then attacked the "moderates." Danton did nothing to escape the danger, his friends advised him to fly, but he replied: Does one carry one's country on the heel of one's shoe?" He was

Kleber, and directed by Carnot, minister of war. The Austrian army threw itself upon the towns of the Somme, and threatened Paris, but it was defeated. Pichegru distinguished himself in Flanders. Moreau and Jourdan defeated the Prince of Cobourg at Fleurus, and Pichegru ended the conquest of Holland in 1794. The cavalry took a great part of the fleet at Texel, through the accumulation of ice. Holland was named the Batavian Republic.

The Convention now finished the third year of the Constitution; it divided the legislative power into two chambers: the council of Five Hundred, whose members were at least 30 years old; and the council of Ancients, composed of 250 members, each required to be at least 40 years old. The Five Hundred proposed laws, the Ancients scantioned them. The executive power belonged to a directory of five members, and was renewed every year. The Convention fearing the power of the royalists, decreed that at least two-thirds of its members should form part of the Government; this decree was the cause of a great movement. On the 11th Vendemaire (5th October), the electors who were to assemble at the Théatre francais, were conducted there by some troops of the sections. The Convention, warned of the danger, confided the care of the public safety to a committee of five members, and during the night the college of electors was dissolved. On the 12th, Lepelletier prepared all the sections for the contest; in the evening General Menoue, sent to disarm the conspirators, was surrounded and forced to parley. The Convention then deposed him, and gave the command of the armed force to Barras, who demanded for second a young officer already distinguished at Toulon, Napoleon Bonaparte; this last declared that the failure of Menoue had