* Whoever reads attentively, and in detail, the debates of the Convention, will obſerve the influence and envy created by a ſuperior ſtyle of living in any particular member. His dreſs, hiſ lodging, or dinners, are a perpetual ſubject of malignant reproach. —This is not to be wondered at, when we conſider the deſcription of men the Convention is compoſed of;—men who, never having been accuſtomed to the elegancies of life, behold with a grudging eye the gay apparel or luxurious table of a colleague, who arrived at Pariſ with no other treaſure but his patriotiſm, and has no oſtenſible means beyond his eighteen livres a day, now increaſed to thirty-ſix.
Mad. de Fontenay, was, therefore, on her arrival at Paris, whither ſhe had followed Tallien, (probably in order to procure a divorce and marry him,) arreſted, and conveyed to priſon.
An injury of this kind was not to be forgiven; and Robeſpierre ſeems to have acted on the preſumption that it could not. He beſet Tallien with ſpies, menaced him in the Convention, and made Mad. de Fontenay an offer of liberty, if ſhe would produce a ſubſtantial charge againſt him, which he imagined her knowledge of his conduct at Bourdeaux might furniſh her grounds for doing. A refuſal muſt doubtleſs have irritated the tyrant; and Tallien had every reaſon to fear ſhe would ſoon be included in one of the liſts of victims who were daily ſacrificed as conſpirators in the priſons. He was himſelf in continual expectation of being arreſted; and it was generally believed Robeſpierre would ſoon openly accuſe him.—Thuſ ſituated, he eagerly embraced the opportunity which the ſchiſm in the Committee preſented of attacking his adverſary, and we certainly muſt allow him the merit of being the firſt who dared to move for the arreſt of Robeſpierre.—I need not add, that la belle was one of the firſt whoſe priſon doors were opened; and I underſtand that, being divorced from Mons. de Fontenay, ſhe is either married, or on the point of being ſo, to Tallien.
This concluſion ſpoils my ſtory as a moral one; and had I been the diſpoſer of events, the Septembriſer, the regicide, and the cold aſſaſſin of the Toulonais, ſhould have found other rewards than affluence, and a wife who might repreſent one of Mahomet's Houris. Yet, ſurely, "the time will come, though it come ne'er ſo ſlowly," when Heaven ſhall ſeparate guilt from proſperity, and when Tallien and his accomplices ſhall be remembered only as monuments of eternal juſtice. For the lady, her faults are amply puniſhed in the diſgrace of ſuch an alliance—
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"A cut-purſe of the empire and the rule; "____ a King of ſhreds and patches." |
Providence, Aug. 14, 1794.
The thirty members whom Robeſpierre intended to ſacrifice, might perhapſ have formed ſome deſign of reſiſting, but it appears evident that the Convention in general acted without plan, union, or confidence.*—
* The baſe and ſelfiſh timidity of the Convention is ſtrongly evinced by their ſuffering fifty innocent people to be guillotined on the very ninth of Thermidor, for a pretended conſpiracy in the priſon of St. Lazare.—A ſingle word from any member might at thiſ criſis have ſuſpended the execution of the ſentence, but that word no one had the courage or the humanity to utter.
—Tallien and Billaud were rendered deſperate by their ſituation, and it is likely that, when they ventured to attack Robeſpierre, they did not themſelves expect to be ſucceſſful—it was the conſternation of the latter which encouraged them to perſiſt, and the Aſſembly to ſupport them: