he use of his legs, and
was always carried about in an arm-chair), and Le Bas, were added to
the number of the proscribed. Rescued, however, from the gendarmes by
an insurrectionary force, headed by Henriot, Robespierre and his
colleagues were conducted in triumph to the Hotel de Ville. Here,
during the night, earnest consultations were held; and the adherents
of Robespierre implored him in desperation, as the last chance of
safety for them all, to address a rousing proclamation to the
sections. At length, yielding unwillingly to these frantic appeals, he
commenced writing the required address; and it was while subscribing
his name to this seditious document, that the soldiers of the
Convention burst in upon him, and he was shot through the jaw by one
of the gendarmes. At the same moment, Le Bas shot himself through the
heart. All were made prisoners, and carried off--the dead body of Le
Bas not excepted.

* * * * *

While residing for a short time in Paris in 1849, we were one day
conducted by a friend to a large house, with an air of faded grandeur,
in the eastern faubourgs, which had belonged to an aged republican,
recently deceased. He wished me to examine a literary curiosity, which
was to be seen among other relics of the great Revolution. The
curiosity in question was the proclamation, in the handwriting of
Robespierre, to which he was in the act of inscribing his signature,
when assaulted and made prisoner in the Hotel de Ville. It was a small
piece of paper, contained in a glass-frame; and, at this distance of
time, could not fail to excite an interest in visitors. The few lines
of writing, commencing with the stirring words: '_Courage, mes
compatriotes!_' ended with only a part of the subscription. The
letters, _Robes_, were all that were appended, and were followed by a
blur of the pen; while the lower part of the paper shewed certain
discolorations, as if made by drops of blood. And so this was the last
surviving token of the notorious Robespierre! It is somewhat curious,
that no historian seems to be aware of its existence.

* * * * *

Stretched on a table in one of the anterooms of the Convention; his
head leaning against a chair; his fractured jaw supported by a
handkerchief passed round the top of his head; a glass with vinegar
and a sponge at his side to moisten his feverish lips; speechless and
almost motionless, yet conscious!--there l