y
called it. There he, the all-powerful despot, found Therezia, trying to
escape to Spain, in prison, humble, poor, shuddering in the shadow of
the guillotine. He saved her; he carried her through Bordeaux in triumph
in a car by his side. He took her with him to Paris, and there
Robespierre threw her into prison, and accused Tallien of corruption. On
June 12 Robespierre denounced him to the Convention, and on June 14,
1794, the Jacobins struck his name from the list of the club. When
Fleurus was fought Therezia lay in La Force, daily expecting death,
while Tallien had become the soul of the reactionary party. On the 8
Thermidor (July 26,1794) Tallien received a dagger wrapped in a note
signed by Therezia,--"To-morrow they kill me. Are you then only a
coward?"[41]

On the morrow the great day had come. Saint-Just rose in the Convention
to read a report to denounce Billaud, Collot, and Camot. Tallien would
not let him be heard. Billaud followed him. Collot was in the chair.
Robespierre mounted the tribune and tried to speak. It was not without
reason that Therezia afterwards said, "This little hand had somewhat to
do with overthrowing the guillotine," for Tallien sprang on him, dagger
in hand, and, grasping him by the throat, cast him from the tribune,
exclaiming, "I have armed myself with a dagger to pierce his heart if
the Convention dare not order his accusation." Then rose a great shout
from the Centre, "Down with the tyrant, arrest him, accuse him!" From
the Centre, which until that day had always silently supported the
Robespierrian Dictatorship. Robespierre for the last time tried to
speak, but his voice failed him. "It's Danton's blood that chokes him;
arrest him, arrest him!" they shouted from the Right. Robespierre
dropped exhausted on a bench, then they seized him, and his brother, and
Couthon, and Saint-Just, and ordered that the police should take them to
prison.

But it was one thing for the Convention to seize Robespierre singly, and
within its own hall; it was quite another for it to hold him and send
him to the guillotine. The whole physical force of Paris was nominally
with Robespierre. The Mayor, Fleuriot, closed the barriers, sounded the
tocsin, and forbade any jailer to receive the prisoners; while Henriot,
who had already been drinking, mounted a horse and galloped forth to
rouse the city. Fleuriot caused Robespierre, Couthon, and Le Bas to be
brought to the City Hall. A provisional government was