Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1862-05-29
RODHSPIERRI.
by JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.

States General. The mobiles and the bishops
refused to meet with the commons. They res
solved TO meet in seperate halls, that each of the
three orders, having seperate vote, the lords
and the bishops having two votes, and the COM
mons but one, the commons thus might be out
voted though in the immense majority. Were
they to meet in one assembly, the commons
could, of course, carry their measures. The poor
were in a state of terrible distress. The mobiles
sent the Archbishop of AK with very pathetic
appeal urging the commons, in behalf of the
miseries of the people, to proceed to business,
BY consenting to the separation of the three
chambers.
Robespierre, one of the deputies of the com
mons, then an unknown young man, pale and
slender, rose and said "Go tell your collea-
CUES that we are waiting for them here to aid
us in asslaging the sorrows of the people.
Tell them no longer to retard our work. Tel
them that our resolution is not to be shaken by
such a stratagem this. II they have sympa-
thy for the poor, let them in imitation of their
master, renounce that luxury which consumes
the funds of indgence, dismiss those insolent
lackeys who attend them, sell their gorgeous
equipages and with these superfuities relieve
the perishing. We wait for them here"
We next hear of him earnestly advocating
the abolition of the death penalty. DR.. Guillo-
tin had introduced a new machine, called, from
the INVENTOR the Guillotine, for the nfiction of
capital punishment, without innictng pain. A
general burst of laughter was excited in the as
Sembly as the doctor said "With my machine
| can clip off your head in the twlinkling of an
eye, without your feeling it," 1t may be re-
marked, in passing, that many who then smiled
were soon beheaded by the keen axe.
A party arose in France called the Girond-
ists-so called because their leaders were from
the department of the Gironde. They at first
were in favor of constitutional monarchy, like
that of England. But finding from the perfdy
of the king and the court this to he impossible,
they then advocated republic. There was
another party advocating the extreme of demo-
cratic license, called the Jacobins. Robesperre
was one of the leaders of the latter party. He
brought an exceedingly envenomed bill of ac-
cusation against the Girondists, overwhelmed
them in their trial, and they were all sent to
the guillotine.
Robespierre, Danton and Marat, the heads
of the Jacobn party, were now the idols OF
| France. Charlotte Corday soon plunged her
dagger into the bosom of Marat. Herbet, at
the head of the atheists of Paris, organized q
formidable party Robesperre, at the peril Of
his ife threw himself into the breach to oppose
them. "There are men," he said "who, under
the pretext of destroying superstition, would
make a religion of atheism. The legislator
who would adopt the system of atheism, is in
sane. The national convention abhors such a
system. atheism is aristocratic. The idea of
great being who watches over oppressed in.
nocence, and who Furnishes triumphant guilt, is
quite popular The people, the unfortunate
applaud me. If God did not exist ii lcouLd
behOore men TO inrent him.
The conflict was short and desperate. Each
party knew that the guillotine was the doom Of
the vanquished. Herbert and his coadutors
nineteen in number. were on the l7th OF March
1894, in five carts conducted to the scaffold.
Danton and Robespierre now quarrelled.-
Robespierre again conquered in the death strug
gle, and Danton was doomed to die. Before
the dawning of the morning gems d drn,es ell
tered his chamber and tore him from the arms
of his wife.
AS he entered his prison, in the vaults of thu
Luxembourg, he said, sadly:
"At length perceive that in revolutions tn,
supreme power ultimately rests with the mos
abandoned. We are sacrificed to the ambition
of few dastardly brigands But they will no
long enjoy the fruit of their villainy. l dral
Robespierre after me. Robespierre follows M
to the grave"
AS Danton, with Camille Desmoulins ant
others who were to be executed with him, alght
ed from the cart at the scaffold, Herault d.
Sechelles, who was to suffer first, endeavoret
to take leave of Danton in parting embrace
The brutal executioner interposed.
"Wretch," said Danton, "you will not a
least prevent our heads from kissing present.
in the basket" As he was bound 10 the fata
plank he said 80, my wife, my dear wife, sha
l never see you again P" Then, as if ashame
of this emotion, he added. "But Danton, II
weakness Then, as, the plank fell to its plac
beneath the slide, he proudly remarked to tn
executioner, "You win show my head to tn
people 1t will be well worth the display"
: Robespierre was now the undisputed vctoi
Day after day he punished his foes, and tn
guillotine ran red with blood He was not ma
maliciously cruel, but thorough fanatic, be
3 lieving that all political opponents should b
executed. The mother of Lucille, the youn
wife of Desmoulins, wrote in the followin
terms to Robesperre, who had doomed he
daughter to death. She and Lucille and Des
moulns had formerly been Robespierre's mos
intimate friends.
"Robesperre," she wrote "is it not enoug
to have assassinated your best friend P Do yo
desire the blood of his wife, my daughterP Tw
hours more and she will not be in existenc
, Robespierre, if you are not tiger in huma
u shape, if the blood of Camille has not inebrate
!; you to he losing of your reason entirely
u YOU recall still our evenings of intmacy,-ifyo yo
recall the caresses you lavished on our lit
+ Horace, and how you delighted to hold hi
u upon your knees, spare an innocent victim
$ But f thy fury is that of the lion, and tai
II me also, and my daughter Adele and little Ho
= ace. Come with hands reeking in the blood
g Camille and let one single tomb re-unite US.
, e But Robespierre was inexorable, and Il
i young and beautiful Lucille perished benea
= the fatal axe. Robespierre is one of the mo
i nexplcable of men. His moral character W
e irrenroachable. No bribes could corrupt hil
lie He sincerely endeavored to establish repub
m upon the basis of popular liberty and virtu
Self-aggrandizement was no part of his pa
But he was as mercess as the slide of 4
IN guillotine. At times, indeed, he seemed wea
er of blood. On one occasion he remarke
"Death, always death, and the scoundr,
throw all the responsibility on me. What
er memory shall leave behind me, if this las
W Life is a burden to me-"
ID A young girl, Cecile Regnault but sevente
r years of age, was accused of plotting the ass,
ig inaton of Robespierre She and her trien
IN perished on the scafiold, and eight carts we
et filed with victims to avenge this crime. b
"a the tickle populace at last began to suspC
Ut their idol of being unfriendly to the Revolutic
no and of wishing to arrest its torrent of blood
re six months two thousand three hundred anu sc
er enty-fve had pershed upon the scaAold in Pa
ne alone. Robespierre, weary of blood, attempt
W. 10 check their senseless atrocities. A consp