dvantages of a constitutional monarchy, he suddenly acquired
great popularity. His renown was soon increased by his active
interference on behalf of the Swiss of the Chateau-Vieux Regiment,
condemned to the galleys for mutiny at Nancy. His efforts resulted in
their liberation; he went himself to Brest in search of them; and a
civic feast was decreed on his behalf and theirs, which gave occasion
for one of the few poems published during his life by Andre Chenier. But
his opinions became more and more radical. He was a member of the
Commune of Paris on the 10th of August 1792, and was elected deputy for
Paris to the Convention, where he was the first to demand the abolition
of royalty (on the 21st of September 1792), and he voted the death of
Louis XVI. "_sans sursis_." In the struggle between the Mountain and the
Girondists he displayed great energy; and after the _coup d'etat_ of the
31st of May 1793 he made himself conspicuous by his pitiless pursuit of
the defeated party. In June he was made president of the Convention; and
in September he was admitted to the Committee of Public Safety, on which
he was very active. After having entrusted him with several missions,
the Convention sent him, on the 30th of October 1793, to Lyons to punish
the revolt of that city. There he introduced the Terror in its most
terrible form.

In May 1794 an attempt was made to assassinate Collot; but it only
increased his popularity, and this won him the hatred of Robespierre,
against whom he took sides on the 9th Thermidor, when he presided over
the Convention during a part of the session. During the Thermidorian
reaction he was one of the first to be accused of complicity with the
fallen leader, but was acquitted. Denounced a second time, he defended
himself by pleading that he had acted for the cause of the Revolution,
but was condemned with Barere and Billaud-Varenne to transportation to
Cayenne (March 1795), where he died early in 1796.

Collot d'Herbois wrote and adapted from the English and Spanish many
plays, one of which, _Le Paysan magistrat_, kept the stage for several
years. _L'Almanach du Pere Gerard_ was reprinted under the title of
_Etrennes aux amis de la Constitution francaise, ou entretiens du Pere
Gerard avec ses concitoyens_ (Paris, 1792).

See F. A. Aulard, _Les Orateurs de la Legislative et de la Convention_
(Paris, 1885-1886), t. ii. pp. 501-512. The principal documents
relative to the trial of Collot d'Herbois,