sentence of condemnation. As
it was, they no doubt treated the guilty individual according to his
deserts: but they fell short of that regularity and manly staidness of
conduct which was due to themselves and to the law, and which would have
given to the punishment of the demagogue the effect and weight of a
solemn and deliberate sentence, in place of its seeming the result of
the hasty and precipitate seizure of a temporary advantage.

Haste was, however, necessary, and must have appeared more so at such a
crisis, than perhaps it really was. Much must be pardoned to the terrors
of the moment, the horrid character of the culprit, and the necessity of
hurrying to a decisive conclusion. We have been told that his last
audible words, contending against the exclamations of hundreds, and the
bell which the president was ringing incessantly, had uttered in the
highest tones which despair could give to a voice naturally shrill and
discordant, dwelt long on the memory, and haunted the dreams of many who
heard him:--"President of assassins," he screamed, "for the last time I
demand privilege of speech!" After this exertion, his breath became
short and faint; and while he still uttered broken murmurs and hoarse
ejaculations, the members of the mountain called out, that the blood of
Danton choked his voice.

The tumult was closed by a decree of arrest against Robespierre, his
brother, Couthon, and Saint Just; Le Bas was included on his own motion,
and indeed could scarce have escaped the fate of his brother-in-law,
though his conduct then, and subsequently, showed more energy than that
of the others. Couthon hugging in his bosom the spaniel upon which he
was wont to exhaust the overflowing of his affected sensibility,
appealed to his decrepitude, and asked whether, maimed of proportion and
activity as he was, _he_ could be suspected of nourishing plans of
violence or ambition. "Wretch," said Legendre, "thou hast the strength
of Hercules for the perpetration of crime." Dumas, president of the
revolutionary tribunal, with Henriot, commandant of the national guards,
and other satellites of Robespierre, were included in the doom of
arrest.

The convention had declared their sitting permanent, and had taken all
precautions for appealing for protection to the large mass of citizens,
who, wearied out by the reign of terror, were desirous to close it at
all hazards. They quickly had deputations from several of the
neighbouring section