, and left the Committee to carry out its
intention. Every member of the Convention realized that this was a
distinct move against Robespierre.

St. Just was with Jourdan's army in the north, and for the moment all
eyes were fixed on that point. The campaign of 1794 might be decisive.
France and Austria had put great armies in the field. The latter now
controlled the belt of frontier fortresses, and if, pushing beyond
these, she destroyed the French army, Paris and the Revolution might
soon be at an end. As the campaign opened, {215} however, fortune took
her place with the tricolour flag. Minor successes fell to Moreau,
Souham, Macdonald, Vandamme. In June the campaign culminated. The
armies met south of Brussels at Fleurus on the 25th of that month. For
fifteen hours the battle raged, Kleber with the French right wing
holding his ground, the centre and left slowly driven back. But at the
close of the day the French, not to be denied, came again. Jourdan,
with St. Just by his side, drove his troops to a last effort, regained
the lost ground, and more. The Austrians gave way, turned to flight,
and one of the great victories of the epoch had been won. In a few
hours the glorious news had reached Paris, and in Paris it was
interpreted as an evil portent for Robespierre.

For if there existed something that could possibly be described as a
justification for terrorism, that something was national danger and
national fear. Ever since the month of July 1789 there had been a
perfect correspondence between military pressure on Paris and the
consequent outbreak of violence. But this great victory, Fleurus,
seemed to mark the complete triumph of the armies of the Republic; all
danger had been swept away, so {216} why should terror and the
guillotine continue? As the captured Austrian standards were paraded
in the Tuileries gardens and presented to the Convention on a lovely
June afternoon, every inclination, every instinct was for rejoicing and
good will. The thought that the cart was still steadily, lugubriously,
wending its way to the insatiable guillotine, appeared unbearable.

From this moment the fever of conspiracy against Robespierre coursed
rapidly through the Convention. Some, like Sieyes, were statesmen,
and judged that the turn of the tide had come. Others, like Tallien or
Joseph Chenier, were touched in their family,--a brother, a wife, a
sister, awaiting judgment and the guillotine. Others feare