r muskets, amid
the cries of "Down with the tyrant!" "Which is he?" inquired the
soldiers; but Leonard Bourdon durst not meet the look of his fallen
enemy. Standing a little behind the men, and hidden by the body of a
gendarme, named Meda; with his right hand he seized the arm of the
gendarme who held a pistol, and pointing with his left hand to the
person to be aimed at, he directed the muzzle of the weapon towards
Robespierre, exclaiming: "That is the man." The man fired, and the
head of Robespierre dropped on the table, deluging with blood the
proclamation he had not finished signing.' Next morning, adds this
authority, Leonard Bourdon 'presented the gendarme who had fired at
Robespierre to the notice of the Convention.' Further: on Robespierre
being searched while he lay on the table, a brace of loaded pistols
were found in his pocket. 'These pistols, shut up in their cases still
loaded, abundantly testify that Robespierre did not shoot himself.'
Accepting these as the true particulars of the incident, Robespierre
cannot properly be charged with an attempt at suicide.

In the article referred to, the name Barras was accidentally
substituted for Henriot, in connection with the insurrectionary
movement for rescuing Robespierre. Barras led the troops of the
Convention.

A correspondent asks us to state what was the actual number of persons
slaughtered by the guillotine, and otherwise, during the progress of
the Revolution. The question cannot be satisfactorily answered. Alison
(vol. iv. p. 289) presents a list, which shews the number to have been
1,027,106; but this enumeration does not comprehend the massacres at
Versailles, the prisons of Paris, and some other places. A million and
a half would probably be a safe calculation. One thing is certain,
that from the 2d of September 1792, to the 25th of October 1795, a
space of little more than three years, 18,613 persons perished by the
guillotine. Strangely enough, the chief destruction of life was among
the humbler classes of society, those who mainly promoted the
revolution; and still more strange, the greater number of victims were
murdered by the verdicts of juries--a striking example of that general
subserviency which has since become the most significant defect in the
French character.

* * * * *

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