ventional sacristan
or beadle, confined to his own chapel, saw clearly only the human
sacrifices in which he himself had taken part. After Thermidor, the
friends and kindred of the dead, the oppressed, make their voices heard,
and he is forced to see collectively and in detail all the crimes to
which, nearly or remotely, he has contributed either through his assent
or through his vote, the same as in Mexico, the priest of Huichilobos
walks about in the midst of the six hundred thousand skulls amassed in
the vaults of his temple.--In quick succession, during the whole of year
III., through the freedom of the press and the great public discussions,
the truth becomes known. First, comes an account of the funereal
journey of one hundred and thirty-two Nantese, dragged from Nantes to
Paris,[5104] and the solemn acquittal, received with transports, of
the ninety-four who survive. After this, come the trials of the most
prominent terrorists, that of Carrier and the Revolutionary Committee of
Nantes, that of Fouquier-Tinville and the old revolutionary Tribunal
of Paris, that of Joseph Lebon,[5105] and, during thirty or forty
consecutive sessions, hundreds of minute, verified depositions ending
in the most complete and satisfactory testimony.--In the mean time,
revelations multiply at the tribune of the Convention; these consist of
the letters of the new representatives on mission and the denunciations
of the towns against their overthrown tyrants; against Maignet,
Dartigoyte, Piochefer-Bernard, Levasseur, Crassous, Javogues, Lequinio,
Lefiot, Piorry, Pinet, Monestier, Fouche, Laplanche, Lecarpentier,
and many others. Add to these the reports of commissions charged
with examining into the conduct of old dictators, Collot d'Herbois,
Billaud-Varennes, Barere, Amar, Vouland, Vadier and David, the reports
of the representatives charged with investigating certain details of the
abolished system, that of Gregoire on revolutionary vandalism, that
of Cambon on revolutionary taxes, that of Courtois on Robespierre's
papers.--All these rays combine in a terrible illumination which imposes
itself even on the eyes that turn away from it: It is now but too plain
that France, for fourteen months, has been devastated by a gang of
bandits. All that can be said in favor of the least perverted and the
least vile is that they were born so, or had become crazy.[5106]--The
majority of the Convention cannot evade this growing testimony and the
Montagna