A rumour prevailed, that the refractory members who had excited the late rebellion were to be ſacrificed, a general purification of the Aſſembly to take place, and that the committee and a few ſelect adherents were to be inveſted with the whole national authority. Liſts of proſcription were ſaid to be made; and one of them was ſecretly communicated as having been found among the papers of a juryman of the Revolutionary Tribunal lately arreſted.—Theſe apprehenſions left the members implicated no alternative but to anticipate hoſtilities, or fall a ſacrifice; for they knew the inſtant of attack would be that of deſtruction, and that the people were too indifferent to take any part in the conteſt.
Things were in this ſtate, when two circumſtances of a very different nature aſſiſted in promoting the final exploſion, which ſo much aſtoniſhed, not only the reſt of Europe, but France itſelf.
It is rare that a number of men, however well meaning, perfectly agree in the exerciſe of power; and the combinations of the ſelfiſh and wicked muſt be peculiarly ſubject to diſcord and diſſolution. The Committee of Public Welfare, while it enſlaved the convention and the people, was torn by feuds, and undermined by the jealouſies of its members. Robeſpierre, Couthon, and St. Juſt, were oppoſed by Collot and Billaud Varennes; while Barrere endeavoured to deceive both parties; and Carnot, Lindet, the two Prieurs, and St. Andre, laboured in the cauſe of the common tyranny, in the hope of ſtill dividing it with the conquerors.
For ſome months this enmity was reſtrained, by the neceſſity of preſerving appearances, and conciliated, by a general agreement in the principles of adminiſtration, till Robeſpierre, relying on his ſuperior popularity, began to take an aſcendant, which alarmed ſuch of hiſ colleagues as were not his partiſans, both for their power and their ſafety. Animoſities daily increaſed, and their debates at length became ſo violent and noiſy, that it was found neceſſary to remove the buſineſſ of the Committee to an upper room, leſt people paſſing under the windowſ ſhould overhear theſe ſcandalous ſcenes. Every means were taken to keep theſe diſputes a profound ſecret—the revilings which accompanied their private conferences were turned into ſmooth panegyrics of each other when they aſcended the tribune, and their unanimity was a favourite theme in all their reports to the Convention.*
* So late as on the ſeventh of Thermidor, (25th July,) Barrere made a pompous eulogium on the virtues of Robeſpierre; and, in a long account of the ſtate of the country, he acknowledges "ſome little clouds hang over the political horizon, but they will ſoon be diſperſed, by the union which ſubſiſts in the Committees;—above all, by a more ſpeedy trial and execution of revolutionary criminals." It is difficult to imagine what new means of diſpatch this airy barbarian had contrived, for in the ſix weeks preceding this harangue, twelve hundred and fifty had been guillotined in Paris only.
The impatience of Robeſpierre to be releaſed from aſſociates whoſe viewſ too much reſembled his own to leave him an undivided authority, at length overcame his prudence; and, after abſenting himſelf for ſix weeks from the Committee, on the 8th of Thermidor, (26th July,) he threw off the maſk, and in a ſpeech full of myſtery and implications, but containing no direct charges, proclaimed the diviſions which exiſted in the government.—On the ſame evening he repeated this harangue at the Jacobins, while St. Juſt, by his orders, menaced the obnoxious part of the Committee with a formal denunciation to the Convention.—From thiſ moment Billaud Varennes and Collot d'Herbois concluded their deſtruction to be certain. In vain they ſoothed, expoſtulated with, and endeavoured to mollify St. Juſt, ſo as to avert an open rupture. The latter, who probably knew it was not Robeſpierre's intention to accede to any arrangement, left them to make his report.
On the morning of the ninth the Convention met, and with internal dread and affected compoſure proceeded to their ordinary buſineſs.—St. Juſt then aſcended the tribune, and the curioſity or indeciſion of the greater number permitted him to expatiate at large on the intrigues and guilt of every kind which he imputed to a "part" of the Committee.—At the concluſion of this ſpeech, Tallien, one of the devoted members, and Billaud Varennes, the leader of the rival party, opened the trenches, by ſome ſevere remarks on the oration of St. Juſt, and the conduct of thoſe with whom he was leagued. This attack encouraged others: the whole Convention joined in accuſing Robeſpierre of tyranny; and Barrere, who perceived the buſineſs now deciding, ranged himſelf on the ſide of the ſtrongeſt, though the remaining members of the Committee ſtill appeared to preſerve their neutrality. Robeſpierre was, for the firſt time, refuſed a hearing, yet, the influence he ſo lately poſſeſſed ſtill ſeemed to protect him. The Aſſembly launched decrees againſt various of hiſ ſubordinate agents, without daring to proceed againſt himſelf; and had not the indignant fury with which he was ſeized, at the deſertion of thoſe by whom he had been moſt flattered, urged him to call for arreſt and death, it is probable the whole would have ended in the puniſhment of his enemies, and a greater acceſſion of power to himſelf.
But at this criſis all Robeſpierre's circumſpection abandoned him. Having provoked the decree for arreſting his perſon, inſtead of ſubmitting to it until his party ſhould be able to rally, he reſiſted; and by ſo doing gave the Convention a pretext for putting him out of the law; or, in other words, to deſtroy him, without the delay or hazard of a previous trial.
Having been reſcued from the Gens d'Armes, and taken in triumph to the municipality, the news ſpread, the Jacobins aſſembled, and Henriot, the commander of the National Guard, (who had likewiſe been arreſted, and again ſet at liberty by force,) all prepared to act in his defence. But while they ſhould have ſecured the Convention, they employed themſelveſ at the Hotel de Ville in paſſing frivolous reſolutions; and Henriot, with all the cannoneers decidedly in his favour, exhibited an uſeleſſ defiance, by ſtalking before the windows of the Committee of General Safety, when he ſhould have been engaged in arreſting its members.
All theſe imprudences gave the Convention time to proclaim that Robeſpierre, the municipality, and their adherents, were decreed out of the protection of the laws, and in circumſtances of this nature ſuch a ſtep has uſually been deciſive—for however odious a government, if it does but ſeem to act on a preſumption of its own ſtrength, it has alwayſ an advantage over its enemies; and the timid, the doubtful, or indifferent, for the moſt part, determine in favour of whatever wears the appearance of eſtabliſhed authority. The people, indeed, remained perfectly neuter; but the Jacobins, the Committees of the Sections, and their dependents, might have compoſed a force more than ſufficient to oppoſe the few guards which ſurrounded the National Palace, had not the publication of this ſummary outlawry at once paralyzed all their hopeſ and efforts.—They had ſeen multitudes hurried to the Guillotine, becauſe they were "hors de la loi;" and this impreſſion now operated ſo forcibly, that the cannoneers, the national guard, and thoſe who before were moſt devoted to the cauſe, laid down their arms, and precipitately abandoned their chiefs to the fate which awaited them. Robeſpierre was taken at the Hotel de Ville, after being ſeverely wounded in the face; his brother broke his thigh, in attempting to eſcape from a window; Henriot waſ dragged from concealment, deprived of an eye; and Couthon, whom nature had before rendered a cripple, now exhibited a moſt hideous ſpectacle, from an ineffectual effort to ſhoot himſelf.—Their wounds were dreſſed to prolong their ſuffering, and their ſentence being contained in the decree that outlawed them, their perſons were identified by the ſame tribunal which had been the inſtrument of their crimes. —On the night of the tenth they were conveyed to the ſcaffold, amidſt the inſults and execrations of a mob, which a few hours before beheld them with trembling and adoration.—Lebas, alſo a member of the convention, and a principal agent of Robeſpierre, fell by his own hand; and Couthon, St. Juſt, and ſeventeen others, ſuffered with the two Robeſpierres.—The municipality of Paris, &c. to the number of ſeventy-two, were guillotined the ſucceeding day, and about twelve more the day after.