Chapter XVI: Appendix: Adams, John (4)

The son of a receiver of taxes at Auxonne, Prieur was an officer in the Engineers at the time of the Revolution, which he joined from its outset. Elected by the _Côte d’Or_ to the Assembly, the Convention, and finally to the Council of the Five Hundred, he sat in all these Assemblies from 1791 to 1793, and distinguished himself by his genuine Republicanism, was for a short time President of the Convention, but after August 10 joined the Army of the Rhine.

At the King’s trial he voted for the immediate execution of the accused. Three months later the Convention sent him to Normandy to put down the counter revolutionary projects of the Girondins, who succeeded in arresting Prieur and his brother commissionary, and they remained fifty-one days in the prisons of Caen. On his return to Paris, Prieur became a member of the Committee of Public Safety (August 1793). At the time of the Revolution of 18th Brumaire, Prieur was once more with the army, acting as a colonel in the Engineers, but being too republican to serve the First Consul, he in 1800 retired from military service.

He was one of those few among the revolutionists who was an admirable organiser and a practical man. He worked heart and soul for the re-establishment of Public Instruction, and together with Mouge helped to found the _École Polytechnique_. Prieur was the author of the great reform in the metric system.

PRONY, GASPARD CLAIR FRANÇAIS MARIE RICHE DE.

Born, 1755; died, 1839.

One of the greatest engineers of France. In 1787 he commenced the bridge, first called _Pont Louis XVI._, and now _Pont de la Concorde_, which was completed in 1791, when Prony was appointed chief engineer of France. The same year he undertook the composition of new tables of trigonometry adapted to the decimal division of the circle. Prony completed his work in three years, and in 1798 became the Director of the _École des Ponts et des Chaussées_ and professor of mechanics and mathematics at the _École Polytechnique_. Bonaparte made every effort to induce Prony to abandon this appointment and accompany him to Egypt, but was unsuccessful. During the Consulate and Empire, Prony’s word was considered law in all that concerned civil engineering in France, and after the restoration he retained his post at the _École Polytechnique_. In 1818 he was sent to Italy to carry out improvements in the Ports of Genoa, Pola, and Ancona, and to give an opinion upon the possible regularisation of the course of the Po, and in 1827 he carried out works which successfully stopped the annual floods in the Rhone valley, for which service Charles X. created him a Baron.

He died at the age of eighty-four.

LA REVEILLIÈRE, LOUIS MARIE.

Born, 1753; died, 1824.

One of the five Directors, and at the time of the dissolution of the Directorate their President. Unlike Barras and his co-directors, la Reveillière was an honest man and a sincere Republican. He refused to take the oath of allegiance to Napoleon as First Consul or Emperor, and retired into private life after the events of the 18th Brumaire (Nov. 1799).

REGNIER, DUC DE MASSA, CLAUDE AMBROISE.

Born, 1736; died, June 24, 1814.

He was at the time of the Revolution one of the most distinguished lawyers in Nancy. He pronounced violently in favour of the new doctrines, and was elected by the _Tiers État_ of his native town as their representative at the States-General. He took a considerable part in the debates of the Assembly, and defended Nancy against the attacks of the Jacobins. When the Convention took extreme measures, Regnier disappeared from Paris until the events of the 9th Thermidor were concluded. In 1795 he joined the Council of the Ancients, and became first Secretary to and then President of the Council. He opposed the return of the exiled _émigrés_ and caused the transportation of many priests (February 1796). He was re-elected in 1799, but as he was persuaded, by this time, that the Directorate could neither serve the peace nor the aggrandisement of France, he took an active part in arranging the _coup d’état_ of the 18th Brumaire (Nov. 1799). It was in his house that the conspirators met the day before this event took place. When he was appointed a member of the _Conseil d’État_, he catalogued and investigated all details with regard to the National Domains. He was the principal author of that code of laws known as the _Code Napoleon_, still the law of France. In 1802 he became Minister of Justice and also Chief Judge of France; he held these offices until 1813. He was created Duc de Massa by the Emperor in 1805. In 1813, after resigning the portfolio of Minister of Justice, Regnier became President of the Corps Législatif. After the first abdication of Napoleon Regnier hoped to retain his position, but he was doomed to be disappointed, a misfortune which, together with the fall of the Emperor, to whom he was personally attached, probably hastened his death, which occurred two months later, at the age of seventy-eight.

ROBESPIERRE, MAXIMILIEN MARIE ISIDORE DE.

Born at Arras, May 6, 1756; died in Paris, July 1794.

The public history of Robespierre is so well known that it is unnecessary to give it here. A short description of his early life, previous to becoming a Deputy to the States-General in 1789, may, however, be of interest, as but little is known.

Robespierre’s father, a lawyer, was a man of eccentric habits and peculiar disposition, who after the death of his wife left his native town, and, it is believed, went to England and America. Nothing was again seen of him in France, nor did he ever communicate with his family. He left behind him three young children, Augustus, Maximilien, and a daughter Margaret. Of these Maximilien was adopted by two maiden aunts, who sent him to the College at Arras, and defrayed the expenses of his education. The religious circle in which his aunts lived brought the boy in contact with the wealthy and influential clergy of the town; a canon of the Cathedral of Arras took him under his immediate protection, and obtained for him, when twelve years of age, a _bourse_ or scholarship at the College of Louis le Grand, Paris. Robespierre, during his six years’ stay at this College, was studious, obedient, and intelligent, and took a first prize in the class of rhetoric. Among his schoolfellows were Camille, Desmoulins, and Fréron. On leaving college, Robespierre, who was very poor, studied law. A letter addressed by him to the Abbé Proyart, is still extant, in which he begs for a little help towards purchasing a decent suit of clothes in which to present himself before the Bishop of Arras, one of his protectors then in Paris. At this time (1778) Robespierre was twenty years of age. After completing his legal studies, he returned to his native town and exercised his profession as lawyer. His reputation had preceded him, and he soon obtained many clients, unfortunately for him most of them poorer than himself. Many reports of his pleadings remain--they are (most of them) mere declamations or speeches upon political and social questions; full of tirades against the “ignorance, prejudice, and those passions which form a redoubtable league against all men of genius--in order to punish these men for the services they render to humanity.” These speeches produced a great sensation. Robespierre invariably interlarded his discourses with the most fulsome eulogies of the King. In one speech he speaks of “that beloved and sacred head, the head of the Prince who is the delight and glory of France.” He occupied his spare time in literary pursuits, and wrote a great deal of indifferent poetry. He was in 1783 elected member of the Academy of Arras. His reputation for eloquence and intellect was now such that when the States-General assembled he was immediately chosen one of the sixteen representatives for the province of Artois. He was then so poor that he was obliged to borrow ten louis and a travelling trunk in order to be able to proceed to Paris. The inventory of the contents of his trunk is preserved, viz.: “six shirts, six neckcloths, and six pocket handkerchiefs, of which the greater portion are in good order.”

ROCHEFOUCAULT, FRANÇOIS ALEXANDRE FREDERIC, DUKE DE LA (_Liancourt_.) Born, 1737; died, 1827, aged eighty.

This distinguished nobleman was the son of the Duke d’Estissac and of Marie, daughter and heiress of the Duke Alexandre de la Rochefoucault, from whom he inherited his title. He joined the regiment of Carabineers when a mere lad, and married at the age of seventeen. His father was Grand Master of the King’s _Garderobe_, this appointment being hereditary in the family. The young Duke of Liancourt, as he was then called, did not find favour with Madame du Barry. He left Court in 1769, and paid a long visit to England. On his return he put into practice, upon his estate at Liancourt, the industrial and agricultural improvements he had observed upon his journey; amongst other undertakings he started a model farm, and brought cattle from Switzerland and Germany, to improve the breed of cows. He founded an industrial school at Liancourt for the education and instruction of the children of poor soldiers. In 1786 de la Rochefoucault accompanied Louis XVI. on a progress through Normandy, and showed the King the various industrial and agricultural establishments of that province, then in a very prosperous condition. When the States-General assembled, the Duke de Liancourt was elected Deputy by the nobility of Clermont. His position in the Assembly was that of a defender of Royalty, and also of public liberty. On July 12, 1789, the Duke de Liancourt, who, though no courtier, was one of the few sincere friends of Louis XVI., for whom he had a personal regard, appeared at Versailles and gave a true and succinct account of the agitation which was pervading the capital. “It is a revolt,” said the astonished monarch. “Sire,” replied the Duke, “it is a _Revolution_.” The Bastille fell two days later. On July 18 the Duke was invested with the Presidency of the Assembly. After the session of the Assembly had concluded, he returned to Liancourt, where he continued his industrial experiments, and founded in 1790 work-rooms for spinning and weaving cotton and wool under a new process. As a lieutenant-general, his rank in the army, he commanded a military division in Normandy, and, when the first excesses of the Revolution began, implored the King and Royal Family to take refuge at Rouen. Had this proposal been accepted much trouble might have been averted. Upon the King’s refusal of his offer the Duke generously put at his disposal the sum of 150,000 livres (£6000). The horrors of August 10 decided the Duke to fly from France, and pass into England. In exile he was almost without resources. An old maiden lady, in whom--although she had never seen him--he inspired a romantic interest, left him her whole fortune, some £50,000. He refused to accept any part of the legacy, and handed the money to her legal heirs. The death of Louis XVI. induced the Duke de la Rochefoucault (since the massacre of his cousin in 1793, he had assumed this title) to leave Europe and spend several years in America, devoting his time to scientific studies, and observations of the Government and character of the people of the United States, and even of the Indians in Canada. Louis XVIII. sent him in 1798 an imperious message, commanding him to join him and take up his duties as Grand Master of the royal household, an order which the Duke respectfully declined; Louis XVIII. never forgave him, and there is little doubt the neglect and quasi-disgrace with which la Rochefoucault was treated after the Restoration arose mainly from this unforgotten incident.

In 1799 Rochefoucault returned to France, and dwelt for some time ignored in Paris; he was still, however, conferring benefits upon humanity. As soon as his name was erased from the list of _émigrés_ he started a committee for vaccination in Paris, and opened a dispensary for the purpose of making this remedy known among the people. When he was allowed to return to Liancourt, he found to his delight that notwithstanding the storms of the Revolution, every succeeding Government since his departure had respected the institutions he had created. The Emperor Napoleon bestowed upon him the legion of honour, but affected to treat him as a manufacturer, and did not offer him a peerage. The Duke lived entirely at Liancourt. In 1809 when Napoleon restored his title, and gave him the right of grand entry to the Imperial Court, la Rochefoucault did not take advantage of this favour, and remained in retirement until the Restoration. Louis XVIII. treated him with marked coldness and disfavour, and did not appoint him to any office at Court. Rochefoucault, nevertheless, was a member of the House of Peers as a Duke of France. In 1816 he was elected member of the general council of the hospitals of Paris. The Duke de la Rochefoucault inaugurated the “Society of Christian Morals” in 1821, and soon afterwards became President of the school of _Arts et Métiers_, founded by him at Liancourt, now transferred to Châlons, and member of the Councils of Agriculture, Hospitals and Prisons. In 1823 the reactionist Ministry, who disapproved of his political views, relieved him of all his public but strictly honourable functions, on the ground of his age (76). Not daring to deprive him of his Presidency of the Committee on vaccination, they suppressed this Committee altogether. On March 21, 1827, whilst the Duke was speaking in the Chamber of Peers, he was suddenly seized with a fit, and expired four days later.

On the day of his funeral, a number of old students of his school of _Arts et Métiers_ came to the church, with the intention of carrying his coffin; when they attempted to do so, they were suddenly charged by a troop of mounted _gens d’armes_ in the Rue St. Honoré, and the Duke’s coffin fell in the mud, his coronet and other symbols of the peerage being trampled under foot.

ROEDERER, PIERRE LOUIS, COMTE DE.

Born 1654 at Metz; died in 1735.

His father, a lawyer at Strasbourg, compelled his son, who was an ardent disciple of Jean Jacques Rousseau, to follow the parental profession, much against his will.

Roederer began his political life in 1788, by publishing a pamphlet on the “Deputation to the States-General,” when he also became a journalist. Sent by the electors of Metz to the States-General, as a representative of the _Tiers État_, he took an important part in the debates, proposing the new law reforms, the institution of trial by jury, the abolition of religious orders and of titles of nobility, and demanding also liberty for the press and equality in political rights for every citizen. He showed great financial ability, compiled the new stamp and patent laws, inventing a new system of taxation. He was a member of the Jacobin Society until June 20, 1792, after which date (the day of the first invasion of the Tuileries) he seceded from the club, and from that period the extreme party were his mortal enemies. On August 10 he, together with Merlin, conducted the Royal Family to the Assembly, and protected, helped, and comforted them to the best of his power.

The following day he was denounced by the Jacobins, but not arrested, and he prudently disappeared from the Assembly, and devoted himself entirely to the sub-editorship of the _Journal de Paris_. An article in this paper, dated January 6, 1793, in which Roederer denied the right of the Convention to try the King, brought him into immediate danger; however, he fled from Paris, and did not reappear there until after the 9th Thermidor (July 28, 1794).

In 1795 he became editor of the _Journal de Paris_. He was threatened with transportation to Guienne during the Directorate, and only saved by the direct intervention of Talleyrand. He was now satisfied that a firm and stable government was the sole means of the regenerating of France, and was therefore an active agent for what he termed the “generous and patriotic conspiracy” of the 18th Brumaire. He wrote the “Address to the Parisians,” which was placarded upon the walls of Paris on that eventful morning.

Bonaparte made him Councillor of State on 25th December, 1799, and in 1802 he was named Director of _L’Esprit Public_, a position which gave him control of all the theatres and of public instruction. In 1806 he was sent to Naples, of which Joseph Bonaparte had just been created King, and by Napoleon’s orders undertook the duty of Neapolitan Finance Minister, which post he continued to hold under Murat. In 1810 he was appointed administrator to the Grand Duchy of Berg. When the Bourbons returned, he quitted political life and retired to his country seat, the Château of Bois Roussel, devoting himself until 1830 to literary pursuits.

After the accession of Louis Philippe he was again summoned to the Chamber of Peers, and, notwithstanding his advanced age, took a considerable part in debate, publishing a pamphlet, _Lettre aux Constitutionnels_, which caused a violent excitement all over Paris. In it he attacked the doctrine that “The King reigns, but does not govern.”

Roederer died from an accident at the age of eighty-one, when still in the enjoyment of good health and spirits.

DE SADE, MARQUIS ALPHONSE FRANÇOIS.

Born in Paris 1740; died in the madhouse at Charenton, 1814.

De Sade, a man of noble family and high position, being Lieutenant-General of Bresse and Valroney, appears at the age of twenty-six to have been seized with a form of insanity which only showed itself in the use of obscene language, writings, and deeds.

He was arrested at Marseilles in 1772 for a terrible offence against public morality, and from that time, under a _lettre de cachet_, was imprisoned in various fortresses, amongst others Vincennes and the Bastille. During this imprisonment he wrote those notoriously obscene books which have rendered his name infamously famous. He was liberated in 1790 by the decree which released all prisoners imprisoned under _lettres de cachet_.

His wife obtained a separation from him, and for the next ten years he continued to publish books and plays of the most appalling immorality. When Bonaparte returned from Egypt, De Sade sent him copies of his two novels, “Juliette” and “Justine,” illustrated by himself, and with a dedication to the First Consul. Napoleon, filled with disgust, had the books burned, and De Sade arrested as a dangerous lunatic, and incarcerated in the madhouse at Charenton, where he died fourteen years later.

Those who visited him there describe him as a venerable looking old man, with beautiful features and abundant snow-white hair, exquisite manners and an amiable expression; but as soon as he opened his mouth, every word he spoke was either indecent or profane.

SANTERRE, ANTOINE JOSEPH, GENERAL.

Born, 1752, in Paris; died in 1809.

Son of a Flemish brewer who had established himself in the Faubourg St. Antoine, he continued to follow his father’s trade. He was rich, and had an excellent reputation among the working classes for the generosity and kindness he showed his employées. Santerre was one of those electors of Paris who met on July 14, 1789, at the Hôtel de Ville; he commanded the National Guard of his district, and for the next three years the brewery and beerhouse of Santerre were a _rendezvous_ for all the agitators of the Faubourg, indeed it was here that the attack upon the Tuileries of June 20, 1792, was agreed upon.

Upon that day Santerre marched at the head of the crowd which invaded the National Assembly, and standing at the foot of the tribune he directed the march of the people through the Chamber. After thanking the Deputies for the marks of friendship they had shown to the inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Antoine, he presented them with a flag, and then went out to join his men upon the Place Carousel, from whence he led them to the Tuileries. He also took a prominent part in the second attack upon August 10, and the Commune afterwards created him commander-in-chief of the National Guard of Paris, a command originally held by the Marquis of Lafayette (!) in which capacity he conducted Louis XVI. and his family to the Temple. On January 21, 1793, he was in command of the troops who surrounded the scaffold, and it was at his signal that the drums were beaten to drown the dying speech of King Louis.

In April of the same year, Santerre obtained a release from the debt of 40,500 francs which he owed to the State for taxes he should have paid upon malt and beer, the reason for the remission of this debt being “that the beer in question had all been consumed by patriots.”

Santerre, who was raised to the rank of a general of division, in July 1793, expressed a desire to show his prowess in the field, and asking for employment in the army, was sent to fight the Royalists in La Vendée. He met with nothing but disaster, owing to his complete ignorance of military tactics, and after being defeated at Corow on September 3, was recalled to Paris. Shortly afterwards he was arrested, and remained in prison until the death of Robespierre.

In July 1794, he was deprived of his rank as general and returned to private life; but his business had perished, and he was entirely ruined. He addressed petitions to various authorities, and finally, in January 1800, appealed to the First Consul for employment in the army or “any post by which I can live.”

Bonaparte did not employ him, but he placed his name on the list of retired generals, by which means Santerre enjoyed a pension for the rest of his life. Santerre has been quoted as a monster of ferocity, no doubt owing to the part he played on January 21, 1793: but he was in reality neither brutal nor cruel, and constantly sought to calm the ardour of his partisans, and saved the lives of persons whose opinions were opposed to his own. He was, however, a man without either capacity or originality, whom the irony of fate placed for a short time in a prominent and powerful situation.

SIEYÈS, EMMANUEL JOSEPH, COMTE DE.

Born, 1748 at Fréjus; died in Paris, 1836.

Being the youngest of seven children his father insisted upon his embarking in an ecclesiastical career. Sieyès remained for ten years at the seminary of Saint Sulpice in Paris, until he had, at the age of twenty-four, received priest’s orders. While at college he devoted himself to the study of metaphysics, Locke being his favourite author.

He was made Canon of Trégnier in Brittany in 1775, and in 1780 transferred to a Canonry at Chârtres, united to the posts of Vicar-General and Chancellor.

The revolutionary period approached, and Provincial Assemblies were called together, Sieyès being a member of the Assembly at Orleans in 1787. He published a succession of pamphlets in the course of the next two years, which added greatly to his literary and political reputation.

The electors of Paris sent him as the twentieth member for their town to the States-General, where he represented the _Tiers d’État_ and not the clergy. He took a prominent part as soon as he entered this assembly; it was he who promoted the meeting of the Orders, framed the oath administered in the Tennis Court; and the division of France into Departments was entirely his work. His influence in the Assembly was so great that Mirabeau gave him the nickname of “Mahomet.” In February 1791 he was offered the Constitutional Bishopric of Paris, which he refused. He was elected member of the Convention in 1792, and appointed to the leadership of the Committee _D’Instruction Publique_. Sieyès was too prudent and, possibly, too humane to take any prominent part in that noisy and ill-regulated assembly; but at the trial of Louis XVI. he voted for death, without adding a single word beyond recording his vote; indeed, with the exception of the occasion when he publicly abjured his religious faith and declared he had ceased to be a priest, Sieyès never made a speech in the Convention, though he recorded his vote in favour of every revolutionary measure.

He was asked, in later life, what he had done during the Terror. He replied significantly, “I lived.”

In 1795 he went to Holland, and while in that country was offered a place in the Directorate, which he refused, but the _coup d’état_ of Vendemaire brought him out of his retreat, and he was named President of the Five Hundred (November 25, 1797).

The following year he went as Ambassador to Berlin, and on May 16, 1799, he returned to Paris and replaced Rewbell in the Directorate. On June 19 he undertook the Presidency of the disorganised Government, his object being to make an end of Republicanism, and he joined forces with Bonaparte.

During the Revolution of 18th Brumaire, Sieyès showed great ability and coolness, and Napoleon appointed him one of the three provisionary Consuls. He was soon succeeded by le Brun, after which his active political life may be said to have concluded, for Bonaparte, supported by the army, easily effaced his rival. The constitution planned by Sieyès was not even discussed, and Napoleon entirely destroyed his public influence by creating him a Senator, and bestowing upon him as a national gift the fine estate and château of Crosne.

In later years Sieyès was given the Presidency of the Senate, the grand cross of the legion of honour, and created a Count. After the second restoration the law of 1816 exiled him as a regicide, and he retired to Brussels until 1830, dying at Paris six years later, aged eighty-eight.

SICARD, ROCH AMBROISE, ABBÉ.

Born, 1742; died, 1822. Ordained priest at Toulouse and joined
the Congregation _de la Doctrine Chrétienne_.

In 1784, the Archbishop of Bordeaux, who intended to open an asylum and school for the deaf and dumb in his cathedral town, sent the Abbé Sicard to Paris, that he might study the method of instructing deaf mutes invented by the Abbé l’Epée. He returned to Bordeaux two years later, and the school was immediately opened, the Abbé Sicard proving extraordinarily successful, many of his pupils making rapid and even astonishing progress. The Abbé l’Epée died in 1789, and Sicard was appointed to succeed him in Paris.

Sicard adopted the principles of the Revolution, and although he did not take the civil or constitutional clerical oath, he took that of fidelity to liberty, equality and fraternity. On August 26, 1792, he was arrested as a suspect; his pupils addressed a touching petition to the Assembly in favour of their master, but it was disregarded, and on September 2 he was conveyed with other priests to the Abbaye. Nearly all of his companions were slaughtered as soon as they reached the prison, but Sicard’s life was saved by a watchmaker, Mounet. Sicard remained for some time in prison expecting immediate death, but was eventually liberated and returned to his Institution.

When the “Institute” was created in 1795, he was one of its first members, but writing some offensive articles in a publication entitled _Les Annales Réligieuses_, he was arrested and condemned to transportation; he escaped this fate, but was not replaced in his functions at the deaf and dumb asylum until after the 18th Brumaire, 1799. He found an ardent protector in Choptal, the Minister of the Interior, who caused a printing press to be erected, at the Abbé’s request, at the Institution.

For some unknown reason Napoleon always detested the Abbé Sicard, and refused to ratify his appointment as Canon at Nôtre Dame; nor would he give him the legion of honour; but he was more fortunate under the Restoration, when he received the coveted decoration, a canonry, and other honourable and well-paid appointments.

Abbé Sicard wrote a number of books on the deaf and dumb, and even some for their use.

SAINT FARGEON, LOUIS MICHEL LE PELLETIER, DE.

Born, 1760; assassinated, 1793.

He was the great grandson of the celebrated Comte de Saint Fargeon, Minister of Finance from 1726 to 1730; at the outbreak of the Revolution he possessed an annual income of 600,000 francs (£24,000). He was chosen as one of the ten Deputies to represent the nobility of Paris in the States-General; of these only two, the Count de Mirepoix and himself, joined the _Tiers État_, and from that time they became the most democratic among the Deputies. Saint Fargeon said, “If one has 600,000 francs a year one must either be at Coblentz or join the Jacobins.”

In January 1790, as Member for Criminal Jurisprudence, he first proposed the abolition of the death penalty, the galleys, and branding or flogging, and in June the same year he succeeded in passing a decree replacing hanging by decapitation. In the same month he proposed a motion, which was adopted, abolishing all titles, and took the name of le Pelletier instead of Fargeon.

At the trial of Louis XVI. he declared his intention of voting against the death penalty; but when the time came he pronounced in favour of immediate execution, saying:

If we decide the fate of Louis Capet in a way which is contrary
to the conscience and intimate feelings of the French people,
would it be against the prisoner in the Temple that the people
would have a right to execute their vengeance? No, for in his
case treason is unarmed and vanquished. It would be against her
unfaithful representatives that the nation would have a right to
rise, because in such a case they would find treason and power
united.

This speech persuaded a number of Deputies who were wavering to vote for the death penalty, and thus decided a majority in its favour.

A former soldier of the King’s body guard swore to revenge the death of Louis XVI. upon one of his judges. Le Pelletier, de Saint Fargeon, like the Duke of Orleans and many other persons of high rank, voted the death penalty in order to save his own life and fortune, and for this very reason he excited the bitterest hatred among the Royalists. On the evening of the King’s trial he went to dine at Feorier’s, the restaurant in the Palais Royale, and was pointed out to the soldier in question as he was sitting at table. The young man, wrapped in a cloak under which he concealed a sword, came forward and said; “Is it thou, infamous le Pelletier, who has just voted for the death of thy King?” Le Pelletier answered: “Yes, but I am not infamous, I voted according ‘to my conscience.’” The soldier, whose name was Paris, replied: “Here is thy recompense,” and drawing the sword, thrust Saint Fargeon through the body; he fell mortally wounded and was carried to his _hôtel_, where he expired. The Convention buried him in the Pantheon, and his daughter, aged eight, was formally adopted by the Republic.

The soldier Paris escaped at the time, but when about to be arrested a few days later, he blew out his brains.

SHEARES, JOHN.

Born, 1766; executed, 1798.

This young Irish patriot, who is described by Yorke as having been the fervent admirer of and even suitor for the hand of Théroigne de Mirecourt, was the fourth son of Henry Sheares, of Whiterock (who was a connection of the then Earl of Shannon). This gentleman was a member of the Irish Parliament from 1761 to 1767, and was eventually appointed to a well-paid Governmental sinecure office. When his father died, John Sheares, a student in Trinity College, Dublin, inherited £3000. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1790.

In 1792 he and his brother Henry visited France and he became a convert to the views of the most revolutionary party in that country. He was a member of the Convention, voted for the death of Louis XVI., and was present at his execution. He was obliged to fly from France, as his views were considered too moderate by the leaders of the Jacobin Club. He returned to Dublin and there led a retired and literary life, following at the same time his profession as a barrister, when unfortunately for himself he began to take a leading part in Irish politics.

When the “Press,” an anti-Governmental organ, was started by Arthur O’Connor in 1797, Sheares wrote several leading articles for it; and one of these, a violent attack upon Lord Clare, caused the total suppression of that newspaper in March 1798.

The hostility of Lord Clare having stopped him in the practice of his profession, Sheares and his brother Henry decided to emigrate to America. But they not only did not do so but joined in a plot to disaffect the militia in King’s County against the Government. A certain Captain Armstrong of that regiment made their acquaintance, and after having gained their confidence, informed against them, and they were both arrested May 21, 1798, and confined in Kilmainham Gaol. They were tried for high treason six weeks later. John Sheares, knowing that his own fate was sealed, only desired and hoped to save his brother Henry, his senior by thirteen years, a married man with six children, and whom he declared had acted entirely under his (John Sheares’) guidance.

The only witness against the brothers was Armstrong. The trial lasted for sixteen consecutive hours--an adjournment was moved for by the prisoner’s counsel, as every one connected with the affair was sinking from exhaustion, but the motion was opposed by the Attorney-General--and at eight o’clock in the morning, after a summing up lasting only a few minutes, a hurried verdict of guilty against the prisoners was returned by the wearied and worn out jury. Henry Sheares fainted in court upon hearing the sentence of death pronounced. After their condemnation no friends or relatives were allowed an interview with the brothers, who were hanged the following morning before the prison gates. After remaining for some time on the gallows their heads were struck off; but their bodies were not quartered (July 14, 1798).

ST. JUST, LOUIS ANTOINE DE SAINT JUST.

Born August 25, 1767; guillotined, July 28 (10th Thermidor),
1794, in Paris.

His father, a retired army captain, died in 1777, and St. Just was placed in the Oratorian school of Soissons, where he remained for seven years. On leaving school he studied law for a short time at Rheims, but finally decided to embrace a literary career. Having written a volume of poems, he proceeded to Paris, to arrange about their publication, towards the close of the year 1789, and he there became an enthusiastic revolutionary, giving up literature for politics. His youthful ardour and natural eloquence were assisted by an extraordinary beauty of form and feature, grave and serious manners, and a haughty and resolute demeanour. His private life was that of an ascetic until the termination of his short but chequered career.

The inhabitants of his native town, Decize (Minervais) elected him lieutenant-colonel of their newly formed National Guard, and he conducted a detachment of that regiment to Paris in 1790 to join in the Feast of Federation. His youth prevented his election to the Legislative Assembly until September 1792, when he attained the age of twenty-five.

From that time he took a most active part in the Government, and became the intimate (perhaps the only intimate) friend of Robespierre.

On November 12, when the question of the King’s trial came before the Convention, St. Just’s diatribe was by far the most violent of the many violent and fanatical speeches made on that occasion. On December 16 he proposed the exile of all the Bourbons. At the trial of Louis XVI. he voted for the immediate execution of the King.

In the meantime the Republic was attacked on all sides, from both without and within, for, of the eighty-four Departments, sixty-five were known to be secretly hostile to the Revolution, and to desire the restoration of the _ancien régime_. On April 24, 1793, St. Just presented to the Convention the following scheme:

The Republic, one and indivisible, was to be represented by
a Legislative Assembly, elected every two years by universal
suffrage and by a Council elected every three years by the
electors of the second degree. This Council, composed of a
member for each Department, could only act by the authority of
the Assembly, and the Ministers whom it was to appoint were
to have _no personal or individual power_. Any conflict
between the Council and the Assembly should be settled by an
appeal to the people.

This impossible and impracticable project gives an excellent example of the exaggerated humanitarianism which at that time pervaded the opinions of the young legislator. The Girondins were, in the opinion of St. Just, a danger to the Republic. Their dreams of a federation by which France would be governed in the same way as the United States, and Paris cease to be the head and centre of government, filled him with apprehension. When the Girondins fell St. Just took an important part in their impeachment; his report on the matter was received with applause, and in July he became one of the leading members of the Committee of Public Safety.

From this moment a coalition was formed between Robespierre, Couthon, Le Bas, and St. Just, which continued until they all perished twelve months later. They banded themselves together with a settled purpose, and pitilessly destroyed any and every individual who opposed their views. St. Just was the principal instrument of Robespierre; he read, on October 10, the report upon the organisation of a revolutionary government until a general peace should be declared. “In the present circumstances,” he said, “no Constitution can be established; for it would be an attack upon liberty; with a Constitution the Government could not use sufficient violence against the enemies of the Republic.” He then proposed a decree, which was unanimously adopted by which the Ministers, the Generals, the Admirals, the Executive Council, and all constitutional bodies were to be placed under the immediate supervision of the Committee of Public Safety.

On October 16, the very day of the execution of the Queen, St. Just presented a report by which all foreigners residing in Paris, and particularly the English, were to be arrested. He referred to the death of Marie Antoinette in these words: “Your Committee has punished Austria by bringing a scaffold and the infamy of a public execution into the reigning family of that country.”

A few days later St. Just was despatched to Alsace as a superintendent of military operations; le Bas accompanied him. Arrived at Strasburg, they immediately established a commission to punish summarily “crimes, disorders, and abuses.” No legal forms were observed: a colonel accused of having spoken against the Republic was shot upon the spot; an officer accused of striking one of his men was degraded to the ranks; General Eisenberg, who had been defeated by the Austrians, was executed without a trial. The soldiers were in want of boots. St. Just wrote to the Strasburg municipality: “Ten thousand men in the army are bare-footed; strip the boots and shoes from the feet of the aristocrats of Strasburg. To-morrow, before 10 o’clock, 10,000 pairs of boots must be on their way to the military headquarters.” An immense number of persons were arrested and imprisoned, and innumerable executions took place. The commissioners left Strasburg and joined the army beyond the Rhine, where the generals were treated in the same high-handed manner. On the 12th Frimaire (November 9) St. Just wrote to General Hoche: “Thou hast taken at Kaiserslautern (where he had won a great battle) a further engagement; for instead of one victory, we require TWO.”

After remaining two months with the army St. Just returned to Paris in January 1794. He only remained a couple of weeks in the metropolis, departing for Flanders to supervise the conduct of those military chiefs who commanded in the north. In a few days he had inspected the various posts on the frontier, and, after carrying out his usual policy, he gave the supreme command to Pichegru, and returned to Paris. On February 19 St. Just was elected President of the Convention.

In March the fall of Hébert was followed by that of Danton. The impeachment of the latter was carried out by St. Just, his speech being composed from notes made by Robespierre. He accused Danton of having served the “Tyrant,” of being the _protégé_ of Mirabeau, the friend of Lameth, the accomplice of Dumouriez, and of having defended the Girondins.

Danton’s execution, and those of his immediate allies, delivered Robespierre and St. Just from the enemies they feared, and they flattered themselves they could now carry out their plans without interruption.

On April 29 St. Just returned to the army, Robespierre remaining the head and centre of all government in Paris. This was the most sanguinary period of the Terror.

St. Just remained with the army in Flanders until June 27, when, Charleroi having fallen and the army of the Republic being everywhere victorious in Belgium, he returned in triumph to Paris. The conspiracy which was to break out on July 27 (9th Thermidor) was already in process of formation, but St. Just suspected nothing, and continued to attend the meetings of the Committee of Public Safety and to make many violent speeches. He attacked Fouché, Tallien, and other members without mercy, and on the very morning of 9th Thermidor was speaking in the Tribune, when he was interrupted by Tallien, and the well-known violent scenes which resulted in the arrest of Robespierre and his immediate friends took place.

St. Just, unlike Couthon, le Bas, and Robespierre, did not attempt suicide; he followed the mutilated bodies of his friends on foot, with his hands bound behind him, from the Hôtel de Ville to the Conciergerie. The next day he mounted the scaffold and died silently and courageously. He was not quite twenty-seven years of age.

TALLEYRAND, PERIGARD, PRINCE DE BENEVENTO, CHARLES MAURICE DE.

Born, 1754; died, 1838.

To give a description of the life and work of this statesman would far exceed the limits of this biographical supplement; but the following few facts may interest the reader.

The eldest son of the Comte de Talleyrand, as he was lame and slightly deformed he could not enter the army, he was therefore compelled by his parents to take holy orders; he had no vocation whatever for the priesthood. He received valuable ecclesiastical preferment, and in 1778 was ordained Bishop of Autun. He joined the revolutionary party, and was a member of the National Assembly.

On July 14, 1790, it was he who celebrated the Mass of the Federation in the Champs de Mars, and in December of the same year he took the constitutional oath. He ordained several of the constitutional bishops, and was in consequence excommunicated by the Holy See, who declared all constitutional priests and bishops schismatics.

He was sent to England in February 1792 as an envoy by the French Government, with the idea of reconciling the British Sovereign and his Ministers to the revolutionary changes being then carried out in France. He did not, however, inspire any confidence in either George III. or Pitt, with whom he had several interviews. He returned privately to London in December 1792, and three months later was accused of conspiring against the Republic. He continued to remain in England until the death of Louis XVI., when, finding his position intolerable, owing to the indignation the death of the King excited against all supposed revolutionaries, he departed to America, where he remained until his sentence of banishment from France was revoked in 1795. He did not arrive in France till the following year; he was accompanied by the then notorious Mdme. Grand, with whom he cohabited for a considerable time before he married her. She was the divorced wife of a merchant at Calcutta, and had created a considerable scandal in India owing to her intrigue with Sir Philip Francis, the enemy of Warren Hastings, and reputed author of the _Junius Letters_. Talleyrand reached Paris, March 1796.

In 1797, by the influence of Barras, and notwithstanding the opposition of Carnot (who was probably the only sincere and disinterested member of the Directorate), Talleyrand was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. He took a considerable part in the _coup d’état_ of 18th Fructidor (September 4, 1797), by which the Directorate re-established, in the name of liberty, most of the tyrannical excesses of the Convention. He had already discovered the extraordinary genius of Bonaparte, and from that time until the fall of the Empire was more or less attached to the fortunes of the then youthful hero.

It was Talleyrand who drew up the treaty of Campo-Formio (October 17, 1794), which Talleyrand and Bonaparte concluded in direct opposition to the desires of the Directorate. Talleyrand first suggested to Bonaparte the idea of an expedition to Egypt, in lieu of that invasion of England which was then the favourite scheme of the French Government.

Bonaparte endeavoured to persuade Talleyrand to accompany him to Egypt; but this he refused, and remained in Paris during the Egyptian and Syrian campaigns, carrying out unchecked his ingenious and tortuous foreign policy. He it was who brought about the occupation of the Papal States by the French, and the imprisonment and capture of the Pope (_see_ Pius VI.), and he also caused the destruction of the Swiss Republic, on the ground that its government was not sufficiently democratic. By diplomatic ruses and threatened violence he extorted an act of abdication from Charles Emmanuel, King of Sardinia, December 9, 1798.

During this time Talleyrand was obtaining in various ways large sums of money for his own private use, more particularly from the Kings of Spain and Portugal, who by lavish bribes to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs hoped to prevent the invasion of their kingdoms.

These circumstances, coupled with the fact that the French army met with defeat after defeat, and, since the departure of Bonaparte, lost all hold over Northern Italy, brought about a violent movement against Talleyrand, who resigned his office as Minister of Foreign Affairs in July 1799.

The return of Napoleon changed the situation, and on November 22 Talleyrand once more occupied his old post, which he held until 1807, when, a month after the treaty of Tilsit, he gave up the seals of this office to Champagny, Duke de Cadore. He was promoted to the dignity of a Prince Electeur of the Empire; he had been created Prince of Benevento, with a fief granted from the Papal States in the previous year.

He continued to hold the key of office as Lord High Chamberlain until 1809, but his intimate relations with the Emperor ceased from the time he abandoned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His astute nature had already foreseen the inevitable fall of the Empire, and he secretly used every effort to hasten this catastrophe. He continued to act, nevertheless, as Napoleon’s emissary with foreign Powers; gave up his château at Valençay as a State prison for the Spanish Princes; was present at the interview between Napoleon and Alexander at Erfurt, and in an audience with the Russian Emperor, explained to that sovereign Napoleon’s project for a divorce, and asked him, in his master’s name, for the hand of the Grand Duchess Catherine Paulovna, sister to the Czar.

In 1813, when the troubles of the Empire had reached their zenith, Talleyrand was summoned to St. Cloud, and offered the portfolio of Foreign Affairs. He consented to take it on condition peace should immediately be concluded. His advice was not accepted.

During the winter of 1814 he was in secret communication with the Bourbons; had much to do with the conclusion of peace in the April of that year, and entered as Foreign Minister into the first Cabinet of Louis XVIII. May 12, 1814, he represented France at the Council of Vienna.

On the return of Napoleon, Talleyrand during “the Hundred Days” absolutely refused to listen to any offer from the Emperor. After the Second Restoration he took up his old office in the Cabinet, but his opposition to the return of the artistic treasures with which the Republic and the Empire had enriched the Museums of Paris, and his efforts to prevent any cession of French territory, diminished his credit with the Czar and the English commander-in-chief, who were at that time the rulers of France. By their influence he was compelled to leave the Cabinet, Louis XVIII. creating him the same day Lord Chamberlain with a salary of 100,000 francs (£4000).

During the whole of the Restoration, Talleyrand was excluded from taking any leading part in public affairs.

After the Revolution of 1830, to which he had contributed not a little, Talleyrand, who had had for a considerable period a private understanding with Louis Philippe, became his principal political auxiliary.

In September 1830, Prince Talleyrand was sent as Ambassador from the King of the French to the Court of St. James’. He remained in London in that capacity for four years, and notwithstanding his great age showed himself an astute and admirable diplomatist. He received a warm welcome in all the higher circles of English society.

In November 1834 he retired from political life; but his mind was still fresh and vigorous, and his life during the next four years was occupied by social amenities and intellectual pursuits. On March 3, 1838, having entered his eighty-fifth year, he gave an address to the Academy of Science upon the death of the Comte Reinhard, a celebrated diplomatist.

A few weeks later he was suddenly attacked by a painful internal malady, and died on May 17, aged eighty-four years and three months. Before his death he received the Sacraments, signing a letter in which he regretted his abjurations and sins against religion; this letter was despatched to Pope Gregory XVI.

TALLIEN, JEAN LAMBART.

Born in 1769; died in 1820.

The son of the house steward of the Marquis de Bercy. He received, through the kindness of this nobleman, a good education, and became a notary’s clerk.

At the outbreak of the Revolution he gave up this employment for journalism, publishing for five months under the title of _L’Ami des Citoyens_, a newspaper which was a worthy companion to the _Ami du Peuple_ of Marat. His newspaper was financed by the Jacobin Club.

He took a prominent part in the events of August 10, and in the massacres in the prisons on September 2. Elected member of the Convention, he defended Marat and denounced General Montesquieu and Roland (then Minister). His speeches against Louis XVI. and the Royal family were so violent and so frequent as actually to evoke a vote of censure from the Convention. At the King’s trial he voted, “For instant death in the interests of humanity.”

It was upon his proposal five months later that the Girondins were put _hors de la loi_; and in September 1793, Tallien departed with Ysabeau for Bordeaux, “to utterly extirpate any remains of that hydra Girondism.”

Here he instituted a reign of terror. He added tortures to executions, and, under the name of “requisitions,” made, as he said, war upon the commercial aristocracy, by plundering all the wealthy merchants of the town. To the mean cruelties of the worst form of Roman pro-consul he added in his private life the luxury and pomp of a Persian satrap.

He met Mdme. Fontenay and fell desperately in love with her. He saved her from prison and brought her back with him to Paris. He was in consequence ill received by the Committee of Public Safety, who immediately imprisoned the woman he loved, on the accusation of being an aristocrat.

To avert suspicion, Tallien affected an even more vehement and sanguinary patriotism than he had previously shown, and on March 22, 1794, was elected President of the Convention. Robespierre denounced him to the Convention on June 12. He also erased the name of Tallien from the Jacobin Society; this was tantamount to a sentence of death.

Tallien determined to strike first, and to save not only his own life, but that of his mistress; he therefore joined those who feared and hated the triumvirate of Robespierre, St. Just, and le Bas, and who wished to avenge Danton and save their own lives. Tallien became the leader of the party who six weeks later overthrew Robespierre.

After this he occupied for a short time the place that the death of Maximilien Robespierre had left unoccupied. He married the woman he loved, closed the Club of the Jacobins, and put upon their trial le Bon, Fouquier-Tinville and other agents of terrorism. He retained predominant power in the State until July 1795, when he visited the army on the western frontier on a mission to General Hoche. Here he was once more guilty of summary executions and caused much unnecessary bloodshed.

The advent of the Directorate in October of the same year practically finished his active political career. He was accused of venality and treason, and though he became a member of the Five Hundred, his speeches were received with indifference or insult.

In May 1798 he left that assembly, and here his public life may be said to have terminated.