it was at that
moment only, with a look and a word of reply that no instinct could
mistake, that she forced a murmur of indignation or sympathy from the
public. Robespierre was dining when he heard of the incident, and in his
anger with Hebert broke his plate over the table.

The Queen went to the guillotine, driven in an open cart, on the 16th. A
week later the Girondins went to trial, twenty-one deputies, among them
Brissot, Vergniaud, Gensonne and Boyer Fonfrede. Their trial lasted five
days, and among its auditors was Camille Desmoulins,--Desmoulins, whose
pamphlets had helped place his unfortunate opponents where they stood,
Desmoulins, whose heart, whose generosity was stirred, who already was
revolting against terrorism, who was suddenly overwhelmed with a wave of
remorse when sentence of death was pronounced against the men of the
Gironde. It was the first revolt of opinion against the reign of terror,
the first {198} perceptible movement of the conscience of France, and it
was to send Desmoulins himself to the guillotine.

The Girondins went to the scaffold on the 31st of October. The Duc
d'Orleans on the 6th of November; four days later Madame Roland, who met
death perhaps a little pedantically but quite nobly; then, on the 12th,
Bailly. Of the Girondins who had escaped from Paris several committed
suicide, Roland on receiving news of his wife's death; others within the
next few months, Condorcet, Petion, Buzot.

In this same month of November 1793 was introduced the Revolutionary
Calendar, of which more will be said in the last chapter.[1] The holy
seventh day disappeared in favour of the anti-clerical tenth day, Decadi;
Saints' days and Church festivals were wiped out. This new departure was
a step forward in the religious question which, a few weeks later,
brought about an acute crisis.

Between October and December the climax and the turn were reached in the
Vendean war. After heavy fighting in October Henri de La Rochejacquelein
had invaded Brittany, defeating the Republicans at Chateau Gontier {199}
on the 25th. Rossignol now had under his orders the garrison of Mainz
and two excellent subordinates in Kleber and Marceau, who succeeded, in
spite of their commander, in wresting success at last. On the 13th of
December a tremendous struggle took place at Le Mans in which the
Vendeens were beaten after a loss of about 15,000 men. Kleber gave them
no respite but a few days later cut up the rem