ntrollable rage by the preliminary successes of the
invading Prussians, the Paris proletariat break into the prisons and
massacre the unfortunate members of the nobility there immured. Few
are spared. Young equally with the old--girls and women no less than
the sterner sex--the noble, the wise, the cultivated, the beautiful,
are murdered in cold blood. The September Massacres shock moderates
everywhere with the feeling that France is at last running amuck--the
mad dog of the Nations.

Yes, France now is running amuck--'ware of her when she strikes!
Lafayette and other moderates--indeed, several of the Generals
commanding the patriot armies have fled over the border, disgusted
with the national rabies, utterly unable to quench it.

The patriot ranks close up. The wilder element of the sansculottes
grasps the helm of State. In the desperate need of a dictatorship to
cope against the foreign invasion, Danton procures from the
Legislature absolute power for a little inner group, the Committee of
Public Safety.

Working on the passions of the people, worming himself into favor
by denouncing moderate suspects and advocating the extremest
measures, our sly acquaintance of the faubourg lodgings--Maximilien
Robespierre--becomes the head of this Committee--thereby the Tyrant of
France.

The foreign foe is indeed driven back, but at what a cost! The rule of
Robespierre's fanatical minority that has seized the State,
inaugurates the dreadful Reign of Terror. The great Revolutionary
leader Danton--Minister of Justice in the earlier time--has himself
caused to be established the Revolutionary Tribunal for the quick
trial of the public's foes, and the guillotine for the guilty.
Robespierre uses it as a ready forged weapon for destroying all who do
not think as he does.

In this storm-wracked world Jacques-Forget-Not is now a great judge
and a most fanatical patriot. The avenger of the de Vaudreys heads the
Revolutionary Tribunal. He is in his glory now, for the aristocrats
that the mobs overlooked are sent in batches to the guillotine--on the
most trifling charges, or finally without accusation at all. The mere
fact of being an aristocrat is a capital offence!

And in and among these slaughters is intermixed the destruction of
Robespierre's personal and political rivals--a work in which the
vengeful Jacques-Forget-Not studies and obeys every whim of his
master, for does not Jacques also have private grudges as yet unpaid?

.