Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/360

 324 of France, as well as the famous Republican, Madame Roland, were beheaded by it. Numbers of innocent persons were put to death. France seemed on the verge of being dismembered: Toulon had placed itself under the dominion of the English; Paoli had made them masters of Corsica; Roussillon and Béarn were occupied by the Spaniards; the Prussians were at Mayence; the Austrians at Conde and Valenciennes. Still France would not allow herself to lose heart in the face of the fearful odds against her; her dogged energy saved her from the many perils by which she was surrounded. The blood of her children flowed freely: The Girondists, Hebertists, and Dantonists, the extremists as well as those of more moderate inclinations, were by turns guillotined. In order to put an end to the carnage it was necessary to overthrow the leading spirit of it all; and Robespierre, the man who was feared by all, was eventually dragged to the guillotine, half dead, his jaw broken by a pistol-shot (Thermidor 9, 1794). The Reign of Terror had lasted but 420 days, and during this comparatively short space of time the executions alone amounted to 2,596! The Constitution of the first year of the Republic (1793), which the National Convention had immediately adopted, was never carried into effect; it was replaced by the Constitution of the year III (1795). The Directory failed to restore quiet; in the reaction which followed Robespierre's death, the Reign of Terror continued, the Republicans becoming this time its principal victims; they were massacred in the South, at Toulon, Marseilles, Aix, and Lyons; armed bands scoured the country, plundering, murdering, and setting fire everywhere. In Paris the mob broke into the National Convention and killed Deputy Ferrand, whose head they placed on a pole and presented to Boissy d'Anglas, the president of the Assembly. On the 13th of Vendémiaire, year III (October 4, 1795), the troops of General Bonaparte had to subdue the riots of the royalists at the mouth of the cannon.

When the Directory was established (October 25,