The revolutionary tribunal was in permanent session. Its trials were
summary. It heard with predetermination, and decided without evidence.
It was the mere routine formality of death. Proof often consisted solely
in the identification of the person whose death had been predetermined.
Prostitutes sold acquittals, and revenged themselves by convictions.
Paris now ruled France, the Jacobins ruled Paris, and the mob ruled the
Jacobins. They had pressed the Girondists, those men of lofty genius and
superb eloquence, from their high position into complicity with crimes
with which they had no sympathy, and this want of sympathy now became
their crime. It was resolved to destroy them. The mob of Paris again
came forth. Devilish men and women again crowded the assembly, and even
took part in its deliberations. The act of accusation was passed, and
twenty-six of the leaders of the Gironde went from their places to the
scaffold, where they suffered death sublimely.
Madame Roland was also arrested. Her husband had fled from Paris. She
was consigned to the prison of St. Pelagie, and afterwards, after
suffering the cruel mockery of a release, she was imprisoned in the
Conciergerie. This prison was the abiding place of assassins, thieves,
and all impurity. It was the anteroom to the scaffold, for incarceration
there was an infallible symptom of death. The inmates were crowded into
rooms with merciless disregard of their relative characters or
antecedents.
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