FRANCE.] ROBESPIERRE. : public safety, which produced a discussion, in which Ro bespierre, speaking with an air of despotism, had the good fortune to silence them. This was the moment he should have chosen to overwhelm the party, who re doubled its intrigues for his destruction: at the head of which Tallien rendered himself remarkable. His friend St. Just, advised him to strike the first blow. Robespierre had passed several days in retirement, occupied in projecting, at a moment when he ought to have acted. When he re-appeared on the 26th at the convention, his -partizans abandoned him he in vain endeavoured to regain the ground he had lost. Sensible of the danger which threatened him, he called together his most intimate friends on the night of the 26th. St. Just pressed him immediately to act. He hesitated for twenty-four hours, and this delay was the sentence of his death. The next day Billaud-Varennes removed the veil, and Robespierre having rushed to the tribune to reply to him, the cries of à bas le tyran, drove him instantly from the assembly. A few minutes after a decree was passed for his arrest, and that of St. Just, Couthon, and Le Bas. Les brigands triomphent, he exclaimed, on turning to the side of the conquerors. He was afterwards conducted to the Luxembourg, and in a little time removed from that palace and conveyed to the commune which had delivered him up. He for some instants cherished the hopes of a triumph: the national guard, under the command of Henriot, assembled in his defence. But the convention having put him out of the protection of the law, the Parisians abandoned him, and at three o'clock in the morning he found himself with his accomplices in the power of the officers of the convention. At the moment he was about to be seized he discharged a pistol at his head, which only fractured his lower jaw: others say, it was fired by Medal, one of the gens d'armes, who had stepped forward to arrest him, and against whom he defended himself. He was immediately conducted to the commune, from thence conveyed to the Conciergerie, and executed on the same day, the 28th of July, 1794. His last moments presented a most terrific scene: his mouth full of blood, his eyes half closed, his head bound up with a bloody handkerchief, he was thrown into the same cell, which had been successively inhabited by Hebert, Danton, and Chaumette.: When he quitted the prison to meet his punishment, the proscribed persons obstructing the passage, the jailor cried out "Place, place donc, à monsieur l'incorruptible." He was conveyed in a cart between Henriot and Couthon: the people halted before the house, two women danced before the carriage, and one of them exclaimed, "Ton supplice m' enivrede joie! descends aux enfers avec les maledictions, de toutes les epouses, de toutes les meres." The executioner, in order to dispatch him, tore away rudely the bandage from his wound. He uttered a cry of horror; his lower jaw separated itself from the upper. The blood again flowed, and his head exhibited a spectacle of the most frightful kind. He died at the age of 35. Robespierre was a monster; his life attests it: but he was not solely guilty of the atrocities which signalized his reign. By his downfal, he was loaded with all those iniquities, which, had he triumphed, he would have attributed to his opponents. This remark is not offered in his justification, but to prove that the pro-consuls of the year 2, ought to share in his condemnation, and that nothing can free them from the reproaches of the age in which they lived, and from the maledictions of posterity. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. THIS emperor presents, in an uncommon degree, a mixture of virtue and vice. He possessed the talents of a great prince and a great general; but tarnished his glory by acts which no reputation could absolve. Septimius Severus was born at Leptis, in Africa, in the year 145. He was at first successively tribune, proconsul, and consul. After the murder of Pertinax, he caused himself to be proclaimed emperor on the borders of Illyricum, taking Albinus as his associate, who commanded the army in Britain. Severus marched rapidly to Rome, but was opposed by Prescennius Niger, who had a considerable army in the east. His first object was to avenge the death of Pertinax. He degraded all the Pretorians, and devoted to destruction those who were the most active in his death. Niger, beaten by Severus, in three different engagements, was totally defeated by him near Issus, and killed in his flight. He behaved with great cruelty to all the partizans of his unfortunate rival. Elated with his success, he pillaged Byzantium, and attempted the assassination of Albinus, with whom he pretended to be desirous of dividing the empire. Being foiled in his views, he had recourse to arms. Albinus, incapable of opposing his power, was defeated by Severus, and slain, with his family and adherents, in the year 197. |