Behind them pressed the prisoners
who, from the reception-room, had followed the authorities, to
entreat them to give them the news of the events in Paris.
There was now no reason for the municipal authorities to make a
secret of the events which at this hour occupied all Paris, and
which would soon be welcomed throughout France as the morning dawn
of a new day.
Robespierre had indeed fallen! Tallien and his friends had in the
Convention brought against the despot the accusation that he was
striving for the sovereign power, and that he had enthroned a
Supreme Being merely to proclaim himself afterward His visible
representative, and to take all power in his own hands. When
Robespierre had endeavored to justify himself, he had been dragged
away from the speaker's tribune; and, as he defended himself,
Tallien had drawn a dagger on Robespierre, and was prevented from
killing the tyrant by a few friends, who by main force turned the
dagger away. Immediately after this scene, the Convention decided to
arrest Robespierre and his friends Couthon and St. Just; and the
prisoners, among whom Robespierre's younger brother had willingly
placed himself, were led away to the Luxemburg.
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