Revolutionary Tribunal, not at Robespierre's instance, but in direct
opposition to Robespierre's wishes. We will cite a single authority,
which is quite decisive. Bonaparte, who had no conceivable motive to
disguise the truth, who had the best opportunities of knowing the truth,
and who, after his marriage with the Archduchess, naturally felt an
interest in the fate of his wife's kinswoman, distinctly affirmed that
Robespierre opposed the trying of the Queen.[15] Who, then, was the
person who really did propose that the Capet family should be banished,
and that Marie Antoinette should be tried? Full information will be
found in the Moniteur.[16] From that valuable record it appears that, on
the first of August, 1793, an orator, deputed by the Committee of Public
Safety, addressed the Convention in a long and elaborate discourse. He
asked, in passionate language, how it happened that the enemies of the
Republic still continued to hope for success. "Is it," he cried,
"because we have too long forgotten the crimes of the Austrian woman? Is
it because we have shown so strange an indulgence to the race of our
ancient tyrants? It is time that this unwise apathy should cease; it is
time to extirpate from the soil of the Republic the last roots of
royalty. As for the children of Louis the conspirator, they are hostages
for the Republic. The charge of their maintenance shall be reduced to
what is necessary for the food and keep of two individuals. The public
treasure shall no longer be lavished on creatures who have too long been
considered as privileged. But behind them lurks a woman who has been the
cause of all the disasters of France, and whose share in every project
adverse to the Revolution has long been known. National justice claims
its rights over her. It is to the tribunal appointed for the trial of
conspirators that she ought to be sent. It is only by striking the
Austrian woman that you can make Francis and George, Charles and
William, sensible of the crimes which their ministers and their armies
have committed." The speaker concluded by moving that Marie Antoinette
should be brought to judgment, and should, for that end, be forthwith
transferred to the Conciergerie; and that all the members of the House
of Capet, with the exception of those who were under the sword of the
law, and of the two children of Louis, should be banished from the
French territory. The motion was carried without debate.

Now, who was the perso