short the proceedings. The law was broken that Danton
and his associates might be condemned.

There was not in France a more thorough patriot than Danton; and all
men could see that he had been put to death out of personal spite, and
jealousy, and fear. There was no way, thenceforth, for the victor to
maintain his power, but the quickening of the guillotine. Reserving
compassion for less ignoble culprits, we must acknowledge that the
defence of Danton is in the four months of increasing terror that
succeeded the 5th of April 1794, when Robespierre took his stand at
the corner of the Tuileries to watch the last moments of his partner
in crime.

The sudden decline of Danton, and his ruin by the hands of men
evidently inferior to him in capacity and vigour, is so strange an
event that it has been explained by a story which is worth telling,
though it is not authenticated enough to influence the narrative. In
June 1793, just after the fall of the Girondins, Danton was married.
His bride insisted that their union should be blessed by a priest who
had not taken the oaths. Danton agreed, found the priest, and went to
confession. He became unfitted for his part in the Revolution, dropped
out of the Committees, and retired, discouraged and disgusted, into
the country. When he came back, after the execution of the queen, of
Madame Roland, and the Girondins, he took the side of the proscribed
clergy, and encouraged the movement in favour of clemency. In this way
he lost his popularity and influence, and refused to adopt the means
of recovering power. He neglected even to take measures for his
personal safety, like a man who was sick of his life. At that time,
seven of the priests of Paris, whose names are given, took it by turns
to follow the carts from the prison to the guillotine, disguised as
one of the howling mob, for the comfort and consolation of the dying.
And the abbe de Keravenant, who had married Danton, thus followed him
to the scaffold, was recognised by him, and absolved him at the last
moment.

XIX

ROBESPIERRE

We reach the end of the Reign of Terror, on the 9th of Thermidor, the
most auspicious date in modern history. In April Robespierre was
absolute. He had sent Hebert to death because he promoted disorder,
Chaumette because he suppressed religion, Danton because he had sought
to restrain bloodshed. His policy was to keep order and authority by
regulated terror, and to relax persecution. The gove