dy retained here were pressing to the bars
of their windows, curious as to the noise that reached their ears, and
the vague rumors which had already excited mortal fears among the
informers. Before the room where were imprisoned Madame de Beauharnais
and Madame de Fontenay (afterward Madame Tallien), a woman appeared,
who, in a marked manner, held up a stone (_pierre_), enveloped it in her
dress (_robe_), and then made a gesture of beheading. The prisoners
comprehended, a thrill of joy pervaded their gloomy abode; all the
oppressed believed themselves already delivered.

It was five o'clock, and the carts had just drawn up as usual at the
gate of the prison, but this time they waited for the executioners. The
procession defiled before a dense crowd; all the windows were full of
spectators, all the shops were open, and joy sparkled in every
countenance. Robespierre and his friends had wearied with executions the
people of Paris; the sanguinary emotions to which they had been so long
accustomed regained their first relish; it was Robespierre that they
were about to see die. He was half stretched out in the cart, livid, and
with a blood-stained cloth round his face. When the executioner snatched
it from him on the scaffold, a terrible cry was heard, the first sign of
suffering the condemned had given. To this shriek cries of joy responded
from all around, which were repeated at each stroke from the fatal axe.
In two days a hundred three executions violently sealed the vengeance of
the Convocation. The justice of God and that of history bide their time.

Robespierre had successively vanquished all his enemies; clever and
bold, protected and served by his reputation for virtue, seconded by the
growing terror which his name inspired, he had usurped the entire power,
and confiscated the Revolution for the profit of despotism. He succumbed
under the blows of those who had constantly pushed him to the front;
wearied or frightened by the tyranny whose vengeance they themselves
dreaded. The hands which overthrew the terrible dictator were not pure
hands, and revolutionary passions continued to animate many minds, but
the public instincts did not err for an instant. The conquerors of the
9th Thermidor could in their turn seize upon power, and the greater
number of them had had no other intention; but they might no longer
spill blood at their pleasure without hindrance and without control. The
culminating point of sufferings and cri