were, with few exceptions, of this class. The system of terror which Robespierre and his friends had adopted and supported only as a safeguard against aristocrats and traitors, was converted by these monsters into a means of omnigenous robbery and self-aggrandisement. Hence the horrid butcheries in the provinces organised and perpetrated by Fouche, Tallien, Bourdon, Freron, Barras, and other brigand deputies and commissioners of the Convention. Sprung from the lowest dregs of society, a Revolution was necessary to push these adventurers into affluence; but that once attained, a counter-revolution was required to secure them in the safe enjoyment of their blood-stained acquisitions. Hence, and from other causes not necessary here to par- ticularize, arose the catastrophe of the 9th Thermidor ; or, in other words, the immolation of Robespierre and the sincere Republicans, by the brigand-Mountainists of the Convention, acting in concert with the other aris- tocratic factions of that assembly.
This event, which changed the whole face of the Re- public, occured whilst Buonarroti held the appointment of agent-general of all the conquered countries. The Revolution, which had hitherto progressed towards a new social order, to be based on equality of rights and general happiness, assumed a new character. The new Aristocrats, forming a junction with the old, rapacity and proscription of the patriots became the order of the day. The friends of virtue and equality were every- where devoted to destruction. Buonarroti was not for- gotten. The Tliermidorian assassins, aware of his principles and inflexible character, immediately dis- patched orders for arresting him and sending him to Paris. Tureau, the representative at Nice, to whom these orders were addressed, having the highest personal esteem for Buonarroti, and wishing to give him an op- portunity of escape, exclaimed publicly, " Voila encore une victime du Frironisme" (Behold another victim of Freronism).* He even delayed executing the commands of the Committee for ten days, so that Buonarroti was not only apprised of the fate intended for him, but might
- Fr6ron was considered at the head of the then prevailing
party.
