of the community was held in terror by this miscalled
"committee of public safety." Even the representatives of the people,
which thought itself called to liberate the world, and with them the
whole people, trembled before these few tyrants, who, elevated from the
dust by the power of accidents more than by that of genius, displayed
a hideousness never yet beheld. "The whole people was in fearful
excitement by anger, by fear, and love of liberty; and the terrorists,
grasping at the terrible as the only means of salvation, manifested
hereby the fever convulsions of the nation." The prisons in Paris were,
during this year, filled with all that yet remained of dignity or
virtue in the republic; while thousands upon thousands perished by the
blood-stained guillotine. The "committee of public safety," consisting
of Robespierre, Barrere, Billaud, Varennes, Callot d' Herbois, Carnott,
Prieux, Lindet, Couthon, Saint Just, and Jean Bon Saint Andre, sat
almost uninterruptedly, dealing destruction to all around. A law, to the
application of which an unlimited extension was given, exposed even the
suspicious to the mercy of this revolutionary tribunal. Every day
new victims, both in Paris and in the provinces, were sent to the
guillotine. Among the more afflicting tragic scenes of these fearful
times was the execution of Marie Antoinette. She,--the once all-powerful
queen of France, she,--the daughter of Maria Theresa, sister of
three emperors, and aunt of one emperor still living,--after she
had languished many months in prison, was finally dragged before the
criminal tribunal, condemned, and carried in a cart to the place of
execution. So perished the innocent Princess Elizabeth, the sister of
the slain monarch; and so fell the criminal Duke of Orleans. But
the terrorists murdered not only princes and royalists, but also
acknowledged friends of the revolution. The "Mountain" party even turned
its rage against itself: Chaumette, Hebert, and Anarcharsis Cloots,
all fierce demagogues and heads of the common-council of Paris, were
arrested by order of the "committee of public safety," and executed with
sixteen of their partisans. Thus perished also their violent enemies the
Cordeliers, among whom were Danton and Desmoulins; and thus fell several
of the most successful generals of the republic. This unheard-of tyranny
continued for eighteen months, during which space of time one million of
persons perished, as is proved by detailed calc