Copyright © 2012 Jan Kelley & Kemper Conseil Publishing

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For Maximilien, Georges, Camille, and all those who lived - and died - in that turbulent time, and made France what it is today.

In writing this book, I have come to feel almost as I knew you.

PREFACE

Particular thanks must go to the following authors, whose works were a permanent fixture on my desk during the writing of this book. They have been invaluable references, enabling me to know and better understand the period of the Revolution, and they will remain on my bookshelves like faithful friends:

Claude Manceron, whose incomparable series, Les Hommes de la Liberté, and La Révolution Française:Dictionnaire Biographique, which he wrote with Anne Manceron, have been invaluable in bringing to life the people who made the Revolution.

Jacques Hillairet, whose Dictionnaire Historique des Rues de Paris has been a goldmine of fascinating stories about the people behind those lovely Parisian facades.

Simon Schama, whose wonderful history of the Revolution, 'Citizens', has been a valuable and constant source for learning and understanding what happened during that turbulent time.

Jean Favier, whose colourful Chronique de la Révolution helped to visualise what it was like to live through that time.

Louis-Henri Fournet, whose Journal de la Révolution was like having an 18th-century citizen's diary at hand to verify what happened when.

J.M. Roberts and R.C. Cobb, whose book, 'French Revolution Documents', has been a valuable source of information and eyewitness accounts.

Reay Tannahill and the Folio Society, whose collection of eyewitness accounts, 'Paris in Revolution', has also been an excellent source of information in general.

Odile Caffin-Carcy and Jacques Villard, whose two excellent books, Versailles et la Révolution and Versailles, Le Château, la Ville, ses Monuments, have shed enormous light on a part of Versailles's history that is seldom told.

Monique Lebailly, whose edition of Charles-Henri Sanson's La Révolution Française vue par son Bourreau gives a fascinating glimpse into the world of the revolutionary executioner, and has been a wonderful source of eyewitness accounts that bring to life the horror of living during the Terror.

Charles Aimé Dauban, whose wonderful book, Les Prisons de Paris sous La Révolution, has provided a unique and incomparable window on the daunting world of revolutionary prisons, and an invaluable source of eyewitness accounts.

G. Lenotre, whose Vieilles Maisons, Vieux Papiers and other works on revolutionary Paris have brought to life the people who lived through it all.

And finally...a special thank you to Restif de la Bretonne and Sébastien Mercier, for being there, seeing it - and writing it all down! Restif's Les Nuits de Paris and Mercier's Tableau de Paris are veritable canvases of life in late 18th-century Paris

Note on Translation. A few of my sources for eyewitness accounts are books already written in English, and I would like to thank the excellent translators of these accounts. Apart from these, the translation of all quotations from books and documents in French has been done by the author. Similarly, translation of all poems throughout the book has been done by the author.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the following two men, both sadly no longer with us, whose wonderful writings started me on an unstoppable journey that culminated in this book: Jacques Hillairet, who opened my eyes to the magical history of the streets of Paris, and Claude Manceron, who brought to life the creators of the French Revolution as no-one else could.

My infinite thanks to Dineke, Fons, Marc, Enno and Gene, and all the team at Kemper Conseil, for your hard work, help, guidance, patience and enthusiasm - and for believing so much in this book. Special thanks go to Marc for being so calm and understanding in the face of my endless questions and anxieties.

I would like to say a special thank you to Frédéric Lacaille, Curator at the Château de Versailles, whose support, encouragement and enthusiasm for my book has helped me enormously in the challenging task of preparing a revolutionary tour of Versailles.

Special thanks also to Marie-Odile Gigou, Curator at the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, and Philippe de Carbonnières, Curator, Cabinet des Arts Graphiques, Musée Carnavalet, for all their invaluable help and advice.

My thanks and appreciation also go to the following people, who have all helped and supported me during the preparation of this book:

Jean-Vincent Bacquart, Director of Publications, Château de Versailles; Denis Verdier, Director, Cultural Development, Château de Versailles; Yves de Saint-Do, former Principal, Lycée Louis-le-Grand; Joel Vallat, Principal, Lycée Louis-le-Grand; Christian David, Maître d’Hôtel, Restaurant Le Grand Véfour; Gilles Breuil, Director, Restaurant Le Procope; Laurence Dalifard, Director of Communication, Restaurant Lapérouse; Professor Patrice Higonnet, Harvard University; Jean-Jacques Faugeron, Curator, Cimetière de Picpus; Guillaume de Chabot, former Curator, Cimetière de Picpus; Viviane Niaux, Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles; Odile Caffin-Carcy, Cultural Attachée, Versailles Tourist Office; Jamot Collet, former director, Club Colbert; Christian Lescureux, Societé des Amis de Robespierre; Vinh N’Guyen, Cabinet des Arts Graphiques, Musée Carnavalet; Pierre Blottiere, Cabinet des Arts Graphiques, Musée Carnavalet.

Thanks also go to my family, who have helped, supported and stood by me during the writing of this book:

My unique and wonderful mother Joan, my first reader and enthusiast, thanks for all your love during those years before this book was ever thought of, during the years I was writing it, and for always believing I could do it; My daughter Alisa, for all the love you always give me, and for your support, reading, editing, help with revolutionary fashion, advice, ideas, encouragement, optimism, fun and laughs - I couldn’t have done any of it without you - you are why I do it all; My son-in-law Martin, for your love, support, advice, help with photos, help with technical things I know nothing about, all the laughs, and for cooking and looking after me when I was working night and day; My gorgeous grandchildren, Alex, Keira and Ava, for giving me so much fun and love - and to Alex for all the great music.

Thanks also to the friends and relatives who have helped me in different ways with the challenge of this book - and who have all been so patient about never hearing from me while I was writing it.

Special thanks go to Tim Hailstone, Patrick Kelley, Daphne Davies, Simon Burton, Dianna Rienstra, David Watkiss, Bertrand Guillou, Roger Burton, Margot Ponce, who have all helped by reading and trying out the walks, or advising on the practical aspects of being a writer; to Marc-Etienne Pinauldt, for giving me such a cosy home in Paris; and to Jean Demetrau, for giving me that first volume of Les Hommes de la Liberté, which got it all started.

Finally, my heartfelt thanks must go to the numerous Parisians I've met, questioned, talked and joked with during my wanderings around Paris, all of whom have, in their own way, shed light on my task, and helped me to know better their wonderful city.

FOREWORD

This book begins, in a way, in America. In Boston, to be exact, where I first encountered the fascinating tourist attraction known as the Freedom Trail. This route takes the visitor to the city on a tour of the Boston that witnessed the dramatic and revolutionary events of 1775, events which led to the independence of the American colonies from Britain and the establishment of an American Republic.

The American Revolution was to be the inspiration of a young French soldier by the name of Lafayette, who went to America, initially against the wishes of his king, to help the rebel colonists against the British. He returned to France in the 1780s as a hero, filled with liberal ideologies and political ambition. These new ideas took root in an increasingly turbulent political arena, sifting through from the educated bourgeoisie to the ordinary people of Paris, and culminating in the storming of the Bastille on the 14th of July 1789. This event marked the beginning of the French Revolution.

Paris was the nerve centre of the French Revolution, as Boston was of the American Revolution, and as such deserves its own freedom trail, a route that will take you on a journey through time, and show you the places where ideas and hopes were born, grew, came to fruition, and, at times, tragically destroyed themselves. The Freedom Trail made Boston's Revolution come to life for me, and in this book I hope I can make Paris's Revolution come to life for you.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Path of the Patriots comes in two volumes, and has a total of ten walks. The first four walks are in Volume One, which also gives you an introduction to the Revolution through a brief history of what happened, biographies of the people who made it happen, and a description of what the city of Paris looked like during the revolutionary era. In Volume Two there are six more walks that will complete this unique experience of Paris during one of its most dramatic periods of history. Whichever of these two volumes you are reading right now, get ready to step into the Revolution that changed the world.

Welcome to the world of the revolutionaries, a lost world that you are now going to find again. As you wander around using this book, you will not be having the same kind of experience you have with a conventional guidebook. You will find yourself lost in the lives of people who lived more than two centuries ago, lost in the riots that overwhelmed so many Parisian streets, lost in the hopes and fears of those people, and at times lost in the horror that they lived through. What you won't get lost in however are the streets themselves, since each walk gives you detailed and precise instructions about which street to go down, where to turn left or right, and where to stop and have coffee, lunch or dinner.

As you walk you'll be reading, so be careful not to bump into things. You should be on the lookout for benches where you can sit and read about what you are going to see next, and if you can't find a bench (Paris needs more of them) you might need to settle for a convenient wall. You will also find yourself crossing the road a lot, going from one house to the next, so watch out, because Parisian traffic is very fast, and drivers don't always stop for pedestrians, even when they're on a crossing.

Throughout the book you will notice some things are in italics. These include eyewitness accounts of events, direct quotes of things people said, the former names of streets and buildings, the titles of contemporary publications, and French words other than present-day street and house names. The following key explains the use of italics for the names of streets and buildings:

Rue du Jeu de Paume - Present-day street name

Rue des Mauvaises Paroles - Former name of present-day street, or one that no longer exists

Hôtel de la Chancellerie - Present-day name of a building, house, museum, institution, etc

Hôtel de Crussol - Former name of present-day building, house, museum, institution, etc, or one that no longer exists

Please don't be outraged by the use of words like 'lunatic', 'deaf-mute' or children who are 'backward', which nowadays are inacceptable and have fortunately gone out of use. But they, along with any others you find in the book, were the words used at the time, and I have kept them to maintain the general atmosphere of 18th-century attitudes. I would obviously never use them to talk about the present. The French words Place and Square (pronounced 'skwar') mean different things. A Place is what we call a Square in English (i.e. Place de la Concorde), while Square (i.e. Square du Temple) means a public garden - which of course is what a lot of English Squares are.

The book contains numerous references to amounts of money, in livres, which was the general unit of French currency in the 18th century. It is incredibly difficult to find a consistent view of the present-day value of the livre - trying to do this has driven me mad! But by looking at all the different versions I could find, and using the retail price index and the value of gold then and now, I have managed to arrive at what is hopefully a reasonable estimation of what an 18th-century livre might be worth nowadays.

So this is what you do when you come across an amount in livres: multiply the number of livres by 11 for U.S. dollars, 8 for euros and 6 for pounds sterling. Using these numbers, a dowry, for example, of 6 million livres (as the Duchesse de Chartres had) would be the modern equivalent of about 66 million dollars, 48 million euros or 36 million pounds. You might find some discrepancies between these calculations and the official daily exchange rates between the three modern currencies - but this method will still give you an adequate idea of how much the livres were worth. And one fact will always emerge - those aristocrats were rich!

The new French republic had its own calendar, and throughout the book you will find some dates written in the revolutionary fashion, the most frequently cited one being 9 Thermidor, the day when Robespierre was deposed. The very first day of the revolutionary calendar was September 22nd 1792 (1 Vendémiaire, An I). This new system was somewhat complicated, since the year began at the autumn equinox in September, and therefore not always on the same day - some years began on September 22nd, some on the 23rd and some on the 24th. The names of the months were based on the flora, farming or weather associated with that time of the year, and had mostly Latin-based names like Pluviose (rain). There were only three 'weeks' in each month, known as décades, for they each had ten days, also with Latinate names like primidi (1st) and décadi (10th). It was this aspect of the revolutionary calendar that made it unpopular, for it only gave people three 'Sundays' in a month, and losing one day of rest every month did not please an already overworked population. Here are the names you will come across in the book.

Months

Vendémiaire: September-October, grape harvest

Brumaire: October-November, fog/mist

Frimaire: November-December, frost/sleet

Nivôse: December-January, snow

Pluviose: January-February, rain

Ventose: February-March, wind

Germinal: March-April, seeds/buds

Floréal: April-May, flowers

Prairial: May-June, meadows/pasture

Messidor: June-July, harvest

Thermidor: July-August, heat

Fructidor: August-September, fruit

Days of the Décade

primidi (1st)

duodi (2nd)

tridi (3rd)

quartidi (4th)

quintidi (5th)

sextidi (6th)

septidi (7th)

octidi (8th)

nonidi (9th)

décadi (10th)

Since I first started writing this book the open-door Paris of the past has been closed up by the introduction of entry-codes, so sometimes it is not possible to go in and look at the courtyard of a house. But fortunately quite a number of these codes are turned off during the day, and if you press the slightly larger unmarked button (usually above the numbered buttons) the door will open - and sometimes it's enough to just push the door open without pressing any buttons. If you are standing in front of a locked door, reading about the building, chances are someone will come out or go in, so you can at least get a glimpse of the interior as they do so - and if you ask politely, many people are nice enough to let you go in and have a look. But if you do, always bear in mind that most of the buildings are at least semi-residential, so you should always be discreet while looking around - so we can keep this book's good reputation!

Many of the walks include visits to major monuments or museums, and you might choose to make those visits separately, rather than while taking the walk. These are long walks, so some people might prefer to split them up over two separate days - depending on how long you can walk for. But however you do them, I hope you have fun.

SUMMARY OF THE WALKS

Walk One

VERSAILLES - AN ENDING - AND A BEGINNING

The Town of Versailles – Salle du Jeu-de-Paume – The Palace – The Museum – The Gardens – The Trianons

This walk takes you out of Paris into the magical world of Versailles, dazzling symbol of the ancien régime, Marie-Antoinette's sumptuous playground, where Louis XIV reigned in glory, where Louis XV thoroughly enjoyed himself, and where Louis XVI got embroiled in a revolution. You will witness the horrifying events that brought the golden age of Versailles to a brutal end when the hungry and enraged people of Paris invaded the once inviolable palace. This walk also takes you on a tour of the town of Versailles, whose inhabitants saw their king in splendour at the head of the opening procession of the Estates-General, only to witness, just a few months later, his sad departure forced on him by an angry multitude of Parisians. In this now peaceful town you'll find the indoor tennis court where rebel deputies swore to create a constitution, and a little park where French democracy was born.

Walk Two

THE CRADLE OF THE REVOLUTION

In and Around The Palais-Royal and its Gardens

'We went after dinner to admire the beautiful arcades that the new Duke of Orleans has just built around the Palais-Royal. Looking at them, it seems that we have achieved exactly the kind of place that Plato thought we should put prisoners, so as to retain them without violence and without a gaoler, but with gentle, voluntary chains. It is the Temple of Voluptuousness.' This walk takes you on a tour of these wonderful arcades built by Philippe d'Orléans, the renegade royal who went from duke to property speculator to patriot, eventually becoming a victim of the Revolution he adopted. His garden inside the arcades was a hotbed of political agitation, where pamphleteers and orators whipped up public opinion. One of these orators was Camille Desmoulins, whose fiery speech here in July 1789 was the first call to arms of the Revolution, and triggered the storming of the Bastille.

Walk Three

SAINTS AND SCHOLARS IN THE LATIN QUARTER

Montagne Sainte-Geneviève – Panthéon – Louis-le-Grand –Place Maubert – Saint-Séverin

Over the centuries a mass of schools, colleges, abbeys and convents clustered around the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, the little hill in the centre of Paris that was to become the heart of the Latin Quarter. On the top sits the Panthéon, created by the National Assembly and destined to receive the remains of the nation's heroes - its scholars of revolutionary thought and its saints of revolutionary action. On this walk you'll see the historic school that turned numerous provincial boys into republican patriots. You'll also visit the neighbourhood of the night owl, Restif de la Bretonne, and the home of an ex-royal page whose denunciation sent his former mistress to the guillotine. And if you want to see a real revolutionary guillotine, this is the walk to take.

Walk Four

CHEZ LES CORDELIERS

Odéon – Saint-Germain – Luxembourg

Les Cordeliers was one of 60 municipal districts created early in 1789 for the elections to the Estates-General. It corresponded to the central part of today's 6th arrondissement now known as Odéon, and its centre was the Cordeliers Convent, where Danton and his friends installed their revolutionary club. Many of the more prominent club members lived in this neighbourhood, which thus became associated with the Dantonist faction. A few steps from the club stood Marat's house, where Charlotte Corday visited one day with a kitchen knife. On the southern edge of the Cordeliers district was the Luxembourg Palace, with its romantic gardens where one future revolutionary had an idyllic encounter that would change his life. To the west were the peaceful havens of the Carmes Convent and the Saint-Germain Abbey, both destined to be transformed by the Revolution into places of horror and death.

THE ACTORS ON THE REVOLUTIONARY STAGE

THE ROYALS

King Louis XVI of France (1754-1793). The grandson of Louis XV, he became king in 1774 at the age of 19. He was tall, solidly built and very robust, but not blessed by beauty, with his rather feminine mouth, weak chin and a look of noble melancholy in his decidedly short-sighted eyes. Louis's shyness made him more inclined to seek out the company of his stable grooms than the palace courtiers, to whom he had very little to say, and his conversations with them were often inept and interspersed with outbursts of nervous laughter. This didn't, however, mean there was nothing in his head. He had a passionate interest in many things, especially science, and spoke perfect English, which he practised by reading English poems and newspapers. He was a kind person, full of goodness, and genuinely desired the happiness of his people. But his indifference to politics, which contributed in large part to his downfall, was evident from an early age, and Louis much preferred spending his time hunting in the royal reserves around Versailles, or making locks in his workshop, where he passed many happy hours. When he did turn his attention to politics, he veered towards conservatism, and got rid of any minister who tried to implement reforms. One of these was Jacques Necker, whose dismissal sparked off the Revolution. After this Louis continued his resistance to the new regime, opposing each new measure as it came along, and refusing to cooperate with the revolutionary leaders, until it was too late.

(Authors private collection)

Queen Marie-Antoinette of France (1755-1793).

(Authors private collection)

Born in Vienna, she was the youngest daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa, and after a happy and indulged childhood was married at the age of 14 to Louis, dauphin of France. She left for Paris, and never saw Vienna or her mother again. France had high hopes at first for the vivacious young dauphine, whose natural beauty and relaxed gaiety were a welcome novelty at the starchy Court of Versailles. But her reputation for parties, games, card-playing and social intrigue soon began to tarnish her initial glitter, and her choice of friends often exposed her to influences that further damaged her popularity. Being very fond of clothes and jewellery, she spent a lot of money on both, which earned her the nickname of Madame Déficit, and drew her into a notorious scandal known as the Affair of the Queen's Necklace. Despite the bad press that posterity has given her- she never said 'Let them eat cake' - she was not really unkind, but was insouciant and easily bored. The birth of her children brought her great happiness and stabilized her personality a little, but as hunger and hardship increased throughout the country, she was unable to avoid becoming a scapegoat for all the economic problems of France. After the outbreak of the Revolution her continued correspondence with the Austrians and her attempts to influence her husband against the new regime, contributed greatly to Louis's eventual downfall. Her own fate was thus inevitable.

Louis-Philippe, Duc D'orléans, later known as Philippe-Égalité (1747-1793). The great, great grandson of Louis XIV's brother, he was cousin to Louis XVI. Born with the title of Duc de Chartres, he became Duc d'Orléans on his father's death in 1785, and was one of the richest men in France, largely thanks to his wealthy wife Adélaïde. He was also one of the nation's biggest spenders, throwing away vast portions of his fortune on gambling, horse-racing and women, and his penchant for speculation led him to build the now famous arcades around his garden at the Palais-Royal. His love of life in the fast lane and his interest in new political ideas brought him the hostility of the Court, Marie-Antoinette in particular, so Philippe left France for a while and spent some time in England. His interest in politics continued throughout the Revolution, when he became a deputy, at first for the nobility, but he quickly shifted his loyalties to the Third Estate and became a patriot, renouncing his privileges and changing his name to Philippe-Égalité (Equality). He eventually broke totally with his royal past, joined the Montagnards in the Assembly, and with them suffered violent persecution by the Girondins. When his cousin Louis was put on trial, he voted for his death, scandalising even the most radical patriots, particularly since many of them suspected him - with good reason - of aspiring to the throne himself. But it was his son (the future King Louis-Philippe) who got Philippe-Égalité into irrevocable trouble by defecting to the Austrians in April 1793. The rebel duke was arrested on suspicion of royalism, put in prison in Marseille and ignored for several months, but later that year he found himself on trial for the very same crimes as his deadly enemies the Girondins. He was guillotined on November 6th, dying with dignity and disdain.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHISTS

Marie-Gilbert Motier, Marquis de Lafayette - 'Hero of America' (1757-1834). Lafayette was an orphan, offspring of a wealthy noble from Auvergne who died two months before his son's birth. Twelve years later his mother died, and at age 17 he married Adrienne de Noailles, daughter of one of the richest men in the country. He was only 19 when he decided to go and fight with the American rebels, and since both his family and the king opposed this idea - and lent weight to their opposition with a lettre de cachet - he had to board the boat in secret and leave without their knowledge. But two years later he returned to a hero's welcome and a visit from the queen, and after his second victorious foray into the American war he became for a while one of the most famous and venerated men in France. Inspired with new ideas from America, Lafayette was elected to the nobility in the Estates-General, where he showed himself to be firmly in favour of the Revolution that was unfolding. After the storming of the Bastille he became General of the new militia that would eventually become the National Guard, a post that permitted him, with mayor Bailly, to welcome Louis XVI at the Hôtel-de-Ville on July 17th. He was at the height of his popularity.

But soon the Revolution began showing signs of violence, and when the château of Versailles was invaded by a mob intent on murdering the queen, Lafayette managed to save the lives of the royal family, but could not prevent the crowd from slaughtering the royal bodyguards. Before long he became the object of hostility from both royalty and patriots alike, and was generally viewed with suspicion following the royal escape to Varennes and the massacre on the Champ-de-Mars. His desire to safeguard the royal family and establish a constitutional form of monarchy provoked Lafayette into breaking with the Jacobins and forming another club, the Club des Feuillants. But he was unable to regain his former popularity, and once Louis XVI was deposed he knew there was nothing more he could do to save the monarchy. After a final vain attempt to rally his troops in support of the king, he passed over the Belgian border and surrendered to the Austrians, who kept him in prison until after the Revolution. Lafayette had to wait 35 years, until the reign of Louis-Philippe, to see a regime in France that bore any resemblance to the constitutional monarchy he had hoped to see established by the Revolution. During his last years he enjoyed a return of the popularity he had known as a young man, and died in Paris at the age of 76.

Honoré Gabriel Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau - The Torch of Provence' (1749-1791). Mirabeau's father was a marquis from Provence who hated his son, partly for his physical ugliness - he had an enormous head and was disfigured by severe pockmarks - and partly for his wayward and debauched behaviour. Mirabeau consequently spent large portions of his youth in various prisons, mostly as a result of lettres de cachet issued at his own father's request. In 1772 he was forced into a marriage with a rich girl named Emilie de Marignane, a marriage that was fraught with infidelity on both sides - Mirabeau once had to bring a law suit against Emilie in order to oblige her to return to the marital home. In the meantime he was sent to prison once again for seducing and abducting a young girl named Sophie de Monnier. After his final release in 1780 he turned his hand to writing, beginning several enormous works that were never finished, including one about lettres de cachet and State Prisons, subjects he could write about with first-hand authority.

Although Mirabeau was only 40 when the Estates-General were convoked, as a result of his dissipated lifestyle he looked at least 50, but he had such an overpowering and compelling presence and was such a brilliant orator that his physical degeneration did not stand in his way - perhaps it even helped, for it made him quite noticeable. His amorous exploits and lack of morality, however, were not universally admired, and when he entered the Estates-General at the grand opening, murmurs of disapproval rippled throughout the hall. But at each meeting he gained more and more popularity with his magnificent speeches, his razor-sharp intelligence and his earthy physical vigour that somehow made his arguments seem all the more credible. He became the undisputed champion of the new Assembly when he delivered his fiery challenge to the master of ceremonies -'We are here by the will of the people and we will leave only by the power of the bayonet.'But despite leading all the early reforms of the Constituent Assembly, such as the abolition of privilege and the confiscation of church property, Mirabeau still had enemies, who suspected him of double-dealing and liaising with both the king and the patriots - suspicions that would later prove to be justified. When the issue of the royal veto came up, Mirabeau declared himself in favour of it, but the plan he outlined for a constitutional monarchy had very little support in the Assembly, and lost him his last fragment of credibility in the eyes of the people. As a consequence, less than a year after the start of the Revolution, Mirabeau found himself without a single ally. In March 1791 he was stricken with a sudden and violent illness - some say he was poisoned - and he died on April 2nd after terrible suffering, declaring before his death, 'I take with me the last hope of the monarchy.' He was probably right.

THE FACTION LEADERS

Georges Jacques Danton (1759-1794) - Leader of the Dantonists. The son of a Public Prosecutor in the little town of Arcis-sur-l'Aube in the Champagne area, at the age of 8 he went to study under the oratoriens in Troyes. Republicanism was the furthest thing from his mind when at age 15 he played truant from school in order to go to Louis XVI's coronation in Rheims. He was then as he remained all his life - a warm-hearted individual who loved to talk, was fond of giving speeches and wavered between being dynamically energetic and romantically idle. Despite his enormous stature bordering dangerously on corpulence, and his impressively ugly face that had been scarred by an enraged bull during his childhood, he had a sensuality that proved fatally attractive to women. Danton first came to Paris as an apprentice lawyer in 1780, then obtained a degree from the law faculty in Rheims and returned to the capital a fully-fledged lawyer. He bought a practice as King's Counsel in 1787, married Gabrielle Charpentier, daughter of the owner of a popular café by the Pont Neuf, began having children and generally turning into a bourgeois Parisian.

(Authors private collection)

But once Danton got involved in the local Cordeliers Club, a radical political group, his brilliance as an orator soon made him its leading member, and from then on he became increasingly embroiled in the unfurling Revolution. At first he was part of the radical left, those who didn't shrink from advocating violence if it was necessary, and although he never took part in the violence himself, Danton's name is irrevocably linked with the horrific prison massacres of September 1792. He played a leading role in the overthrow of the monarchy on August 10th 1792, and was briefly Minister of Justice before becoming a deputy in the National Convention. Danton sided with Robespierre against the Girondins, but then began to take a more moderate stance, pleading for clemency and an end to the Terror. At this point Robespierre turned against him. Danton was arrested along with several of his friends at the end of March 1794, then tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal that he himself had created, and guillotined. For most of France his name is synonymous with the Revolution.

Maximilien de Robespierre (1758-1794) - Leader of the Robespierrists. Although it is Danton who has a statue in Paris, for some the person who symbolizes the Revolution is Robespierre, the little lawyer from Arras who lived for republican virtue, who railed against royalty, Christianity, and all the privileges of the ancien régime, but never gave up his impeccably powdered wig. Robespierre received a brilliant classical education at the college of Louis-le-Grand, where he excelled in everything he did and discovered the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He then went on to study law, and began a practice in Arras, where he established his reputation as a defender of the victims of privilege and an opponent of the death penalty. When the Estates-General opened, he was elected as a deputy to the Third Estate, and his involvement in the Revolution began. Public speaking did not come easily to Robespierre, and he remained somewhat on the sidelines, but in time he developed a reputation for the purity of his ideas, and for his resistance to corruption, which earned him the nickname 'l'Incorruptible'. Robespierre's less than dynamic skills as an orator, coupled with his fierce opposition to privilege, made him an object of mockery in the royalist newspapers, one of which declared that 'if the Comte de Mirabeau is the Torch of Provence, then Monsieur de Robespierre is the Candle of Arras.' But it was in the Jacobin Club that Robespierre found his voice, and from then on there was no looking back as he gradually evolved into the indisputable leader of the Jacobin movement. At first he sat on the Mountain - the high benches in the Assembly where Danton and the radicals sat - maintaining his alliance with them until two opposing factions, the Girondins and the Hébertists, were eliminated. Then he turned against Danton, whose execution made Robespierre the absolute leader of the Revolution, enabling him to begin the creation of his dream - a republican utopia based on virtue. But as his views became more and more extreme, and his ferocious adherence to the Reign of Terror more and more inflexible, Robespierre's colleagues began plotting his overthrow. This took place on July 27th 1794, and he was guillotined the following day.

(Authors private collection)

Robespierre's enigmatic personality has never ceased to fascinate people, and reading about his early childhood is very moving and quite telling. His first six years seemed to be very happy, with loving parents and the sort of harmonious family you might expect to find on a Victorian Christmas card. So perhaps it isn't surprising that his father broke down completely when his young wife died shortly after delivering her fifth (stillborn) baby, and in the end he didn't have the strength of character to cope. He abandoned the entire family and never came back, leaving his four children in the care of various relatives. six-year-old Maximilien was the oldest, and his mother's death marked him for the rest of his life, leaving him withdrawn and sad, his emotions frozen and his heart broken. What's more the departure of his father left him with responsibilities far too heavy for his age, and he soon learned to bury his sadness in front of others, and to cry only when he was alone. Was it this desperate strategy for emotional survival that resulted in the seeming frigidity and aloofness of the adult Robespierre? And was it perhaps the hazy memory of those six idyllic years, before his family broke up for ever, that propelled Robespierre into his pursuit of a perfect utopia, in an attempt to regain the paradise he had lost so long ago?

Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville (1754-1793) - Leader of the Girondins. Many of the key members of this faction came from the Gironde region, hence its name, but it was first known as the Brissotins after its leader. Brissot did not come from the Gironde, but was the thirteenth son of a wealthy caterer in Chartres, where he qualified as a lawyer before leaving for Paris at the age of 19. Brissot describes himself at that phase in his life with great candour. 'Vanity was my first motivating force, a desire for wealth was the second...I envisioned at that time the double folly of making my fortune on the path of glory.' But despite his education, scientific knowledge, and fluency in English and Italian, no fortune was forthcoming, so he turned his hand to writing, which he found equally unrewarding. It did, however, bring him into contact with Marat, Lavoisier and several other scholars of the time, with whom he tried to found an International Academy based in London. But this, like most of Brissot's projects, ended in financial disaster, and he found himself heavily in debt and in danger of ending up in a British debtors' prison. So he fled back to France, only to find himself within the walls of the Bastille, accused of publishing defamatory leaflets about the queen.

It was thanks to his wife's professional contact with the Duc d'Orléans that Brissot succeeded in putting his life on a more stable path. Still devoted to difficult causes, however, he founded the 'Society of Friends of Black People' with Mirabeau and Lafayette, then left for America, where he befriended Franklin and Washington, and became a republican. Back in France the Revolution was in the making, and although Brissot failed to get elected to the Estates-General, he continued writing, publishing a newspaper called Le Patriote Français that brought him national attention. Through the Jacobin Club he met all the Paris revolutionaries and played an important role in the Legislative Assembly, where he led the Girondin call for war against the crowned heads of Europe. But this brought him into conflict with Robespierre - never a good thing - and when the king formed a new ministry made up almost entirely of Girondins, war was quickly declared and the split between Brissot and the Jacobins deepened. For supporting Lafayette and giving jobs to his friends Brissot got criticism from all sides, including Robespierre, who called him a liberticide. Despite his election to the Convention, Brissot continued to be regaled with insults by the Jacobins, who finally threw him out of their club. His response was to call for closure of the club and dissolution of the Paris Commune, which resulted in his arrest and imprisonment in June 1793, and the following October he was tried and guillotined along with twenty of his Girondin colleagues.

THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (1767-1794). Saint-Just was only 27 when he died, making him the youngest of the revolutionary leaders. He was born in Decize, in the Nièvre region, but when he was 9 his family moved to Blérancourt in the department of Aisne. He was a handsome boy with a rather poetic aloofness, but any hint of a smile was rarely seen to pass over his generous, feminine mouth. As he grew up he became bored by life in his small provincial home town, feeling constrained by a very limited allowance from his widowed mother, who objected strongly to his love affair with a local girl called Thérèse. To get her son away from his young sweetheart Madame Saint-Just sent him to school in Paris at the college of Louis-le-Grand, but during a trip home for the holidays, under cover of night, he stole the family silver and made off with it back to Paris. This resulted in a spell in a house of correction for young offenders, which did little to cure the wayward boy, and Saint-Just's mother had to tolerate her son's delinquent behaviour for most of his youth. It is ironic, therefore, that having spent his early years defying the law, Saint-Just not only got a law degree, he also became the most severe of all the patriots in his application of revolutionary law during the Terror. By 1789 Saint-Just had turned his hand to writing, initially shocking everyone - especially his mother - with a satirical poem called Organt, which denounced traditional ideas, the miseries of life in the country and the debauchery of life in the convents. But by autumn 1791 his writings began to reflect more political maturity, particularly his essay 'Spirit of the Revolution and the French Constitution', which sold out within a few days of publication.

At this period he was in regular correspondence with Robespierre, who had inspired the young Saint-Just with an admiration bordering on religious hero-worship. He'd written his first letter to Robespierre in August 1790. 'You who support the stumbling fatherland against the torrent of despotism and intrigue, you whom I know, as I know God, only by marvels, I now write to you, Sir, and implore you to join me in saving my sad country...I do not know you, but you are a great man. You are not only the deputy of a province, you are that of humanity and the Republic.' His subsequent friendship with Robespierre would last until death, which they also shared. Saint-Just became a deputy in the National Convention, and one of the most powerful members of the Committee of Public Safety, supporting Robespierre in everything, including the persecution of the Girondins, the Hébertists and the Dantonists. On his missions to the northern front he established much-needed order and discipline in the republican army ranks, and when he came back to Paris and found Robespierre under political attack, he stood by him right up to his overthrow on 9 Thermidor, following him to the guillotine the next day.

Georges Auguste Couthon (1755-1794). During the Great Terror Georges Couthon formed, with Robespierre and Saint-Just, what their fellow committee members called the 'triumvirate'. You could not miss him as he rolled into the Tuileries Palace in his wheelchair, which he would park at the bottom of the stairs and then get one of his colleagues to carry him on their back up to the Committee Room. This man who was described as the 'second soul' of Robespierre was born in a small town near Clermont-Ferrand, the son of a notary, and generally considered to be a nice-looking young man with a soft and likeable nature. From a young age, however, he suffered from progressive paralysis due to a severe rheumatic illness that he caught - it is said - when he got trapped in a swamp in the pouring rain on his way to see his fiancée. Undeterred by his illness, Couthon became one of the most brilliant lawyers in Clermont-Ferrand, and was known for defending his poorer clients free of charge. He suffered a disappointment on failing to get elected to the Estates-General, but threw himself into revolutionary activity and later became a deputy in the Legislative Assembly. Up until the end of 1792 he allied himself with Roland and the Girondins, but when one of them attacked Robespierre he broke with them forever.

From then on he was an inseparable ally of 'the Incorruptible', which probably saved his life at that point, for a few months later the Girondins were outlawed and persecuted, and Couthon contributed to their downfall. On the Committee of Public Safety he played a major role in the persecution of both the Hébertists and the Dantonists, showing himself to be an inflexible advocate of the Terror. It was Couthon who proposed and drafted the terrible law of 22 Prairial, a law that took away all right of defence from prisoners brought before the Tribunal, and turned revolutionary justice into a horrific nightmare. At this point certain deputies began to view the triumvirate more as enemies than associates, as a result of which the wheels were put in motion that culminated in the coup of 9 Thermidor, when Couthon was arrested and guillotined with the other Robespierrists. His wheelchair remains for posterity in Paris's Carnavalet Museum, as a reminder of this stoic patriot, who must be admired for having the courage and determination to get up the Tuileries stairs every day in the face of intense and permanent pain.

THE JOURNALISTS OF THE REVOLUTION

Jacques-René Hébert (1757-1794) - Editor of Le Père Duchesne. I put him first, for as leader of the Hébertists he also belongs above with the faction leaders, but he is most famous for his newspaper, which made him a folk hero throughout the country. After a troubled youth in his native town of Alençon and a miserable existence in the slums of Paris, he brought out the first issue of Le Père Duchesne in September 1790, and within just a few weeks its distribution figures were among the highest in the city. It also brought him to the attention of the revolutionary leaders, some of whom were fascinated by the popular, not to say vulgar language that Hébert used in his newspaper, and his blood-curdling suggestions about what should be done to the enemies of the Revolution. Le Père Duchesne was, in a way, an ancestor of the modern tabloids in its style of speaking directly to the people, and shamelessly whipping up public opinion without any attempt at objectivity. When the king was deposed on August 10th 1792 Hébert joined the Insurrectionary Commune that was set up that night at the Hôtel-de-Ville, and was subsequently elected as the Commune's deputy Public Prosecutor. He seized this opportunity to bring into the Commune a large number of friends who shared his extremism, and joined with him in his dechristianization campaign during the autumn of 1793. The Hébertists also ruthlessly persecuted the Girondins, who took their revenge by putting Hébert in prison, but his release three days later signalled a triumph for the Commune and the downfall of the Girondins. Hébert's increasingly bloodthirsty rhetoric, however, and in particular his totally fabricated accusation of incest against Marie-Antoinette, began to outrage even the most radical Jacobins, and when the Hébertists issued a veiled attack on Robespierre himself, they were all arrested. Ten days later, on March 24th 1794, Hébert went, shaking and sobbing with fear, to the guillotine.

Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793) - Editor of L'ami du Peuple.Marat is very famous for being murdered in a bath, but the details of his earlier life are relatively ignored. He was born in Switzerland of a Sardinian father and a French mother who had converted to Calvinism. After studying medicine in France, he left for Holland and then for England, where he spent eleven years caring for the sick in the slums of London and wrote a book called The Chains of Slavery. The timing of its publication in 1774 was highly provocative, for it was the year Louis XVI came to the throne, and in it Marat describes the oppression of the people by corrupt princes. During these years he also carried out experiments on various physical phenomena, including optics, but on returning to France in 1776 he failed to be taken seriously by the scientific community, and in addition had hardly any patients. Things were not going well for Marat.

Then the Revolution came along and saved him, for suddenly he had an awful lot to write about. He published a journal for the deputies of the Estates-General, and September 1789 saw the appearance of the first issue of l'Ami du Peuple (Friend of the People). This highly popular newspaper, which also had similarities to present-day scandal rags, would reveal in each issue some shocking new political outrage, then take it to pieces and denounce the various people involved in it. These exposés would invariably end with a demand for several hundred heads, and Marat's incessant appeals for violence and abusive slandering of public figures got him in continual trouble with the authorities. The police would often be seen around his front door, and he was always having to hide, regularly taking refuge in a friend's house, or a cellar, even in the sewers. After the massacre on the Champ-de-Mars he advocated the hanging of 800 deputies (over 60 percent of the entire Assembly) and this time he was forced to flee to England. When he returned to Paris, Marat resumed his violent publications, helping to whip up the public unrest that led to the prison massacres of September 1792, but this time he was not pursued by the police, or any other authority, for his views were now shared by the new Minister of Justice, Danton. Marat was elected as a deputy for Paris in the National Convention, where he embarked on another series of barbaric speeches calling for hundreds of heads, and when he wasn't making speeches, he would sit writing notes. But the terrible skin disease that afflicted him eventually prevented him from attending the Convention, and he began spending his days sitting in a bath to alleviate his pain. It was while he was doing this that Charlotte Corday visited him with her kitchen knife, and turned him into a revolutionary martyr.

Camille Desmoulins (1760-1794) - Editor of le Vieux Cordelier. The son of a magistrate in Guise in Picardy, Desmoulins gained a scholarship to the college of Louis-le-Grand in Paris, where he was a brilliant scholar. It was here that he became a confirmed republican and made friends with Robespierre and several other future revolutionaries. He qualified as a lawyer, but was not very good at it, because of a serious stammer that made it difficult for him to plead effectively. So for want of clients, he decided to write. This was his real talent, and many consider Desmoulins to be the most brilliant journalist of the Revolution, the one who captured most eloquently not only the unfurling of political events but the spirit of the era in general. His writing was radical from the start, and some of his early publications, notably his Discours de la Lanterne, are quite violent in their tone. It was speaking, however, and not writing that gave Desmoulins his greatest moment of glory, when his fiery call-to-arms in the gardens of the Palais-Royal moved the people to storm the Bastille and start the Revolution. After that he was accepted in all patriotic circles, and was finally able to make a good living from his writing. In November 1789 he launched a weekly publication called Les Révolutions de France et de Brabant, which was an instant success, remaining so right up to the last issue in July 1791, and although it was criticised by some for the violence of its rhetoric, it established Desmoulins as a formidable reporter of revolutionary events. During this time he also became an important member of the Cordeliers Club and a staunch ally of Danton - and of Robespierre, whose friendship was very important to him.

(Authors private collection)

But Desmoulin's life began to sink into turbulence in 1792 when he launched a virulent press campaign against Brissot and the Girondins, and also took an active part in the siege on the Tuileries during the night when the monarchy was overthrown. After his election as a Paris deputy to the National Convention, he voted for the death of the king, and continued his persecution of the Girondins with the publication of another pamphlet, l'Histoire des Brissotins. But when he saw Brissot and the Girondins condemned to death, Desmoulins was horrified by the result of his own actions, and decided to launch another press campaign to end the Terror. The result was Le Vieux Cordelier (the Old Cordelier), seven numbers in all, the last of which did not appear until after his death. In it he decried the excesses of the Revolution, and echoed the opinion of Danton and many of their friends in calling for a Committee of Clemency and an end to the Terror. But by now his old friend Robespierre was on his own political path of no return, and could no longer protect Desmoulins, who was arrested along with the Dantonists and guillotined on April 5th 1794.

PARIS OBSERVERS

Louis-Sébastien Mercier (1740-1814). Eight years before the Revolution an anonymous two-volume publication, printed in Switzerland and entitled Tableau de Paris, appeared in the bookshops of the French capital. It was immediately attacked by the censors. The author's identity was revealed following the prosecution of the printer, Fauche, who was in Paris at the time the book was published, and found himself imprisoned for bringing copies of it into France. The author was Louis-Sébastien Mercier, a Frenchman, who had not minced his words in his descriptions of life in the French capital. A literary journal of the time warned readers not to be 'surprised at all the horrors brought together under this title. There you will find, by way of a confusion of things common, trivial and in the worst of taste, several eloquent pages, curious anecdotes, pictures filled with sensitivity, a few original ideas, some infinitely hazardous views, with enormous ignorance of the world and business. But however imperfect the execution of this work may be, the idea is without doubt a good one, the subject rich and varied, the style quite entertaining.' At first Mercier had to flee to Switzerland, where in the course of the next seven years he brought out ten more volumes. Despite negative reviews - or maybe because of them - they enjoyed an enormous success, and the work has since come to be seen as a definitive account of Paris on the eve of the Revolution.

Shortly before the storming of the Bastille Mercier came back to Paris, where he made the acquaintance of several patriots, including Brissot and Desmoulins, and was later elected as a deputy in the Convention. Always a moderate, he opposed the death penalty for the king, became a vigorous opponent of the Jacobins, and signed a written protest against the revolt of May 1793 that ousted the Girondins. For this he was imprisoned in La Force, but had the miraculously good fortune to never be called to the Revolutionary Tribunal. When the Terror ended Mercier continued his involvement in politics, becoming increasingly conservative in his ideas, and when he eventually left the government and became a history professor, he spent much of his time writing scathing attacks on all his colleagues. He especially loathed Napoléon, and just lived long enough to see this object of his hatred deposed and exiled. Throughout your walks you'll be reading numerous snippets of Mercier's descriptions of Paris, all veritable treasures of eye-witness history that were 'thought out in the street and written on the city stones.'

Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne (1734-1806). During the active and often turbulent nights of revolutionary Paris, a dark figure wearing a scruffy black cloak and a wide-brimmed hat would often be seen walking the streets, hurrying to cafés, talking in shadowy corners to unknown passers-by, all the while keeping an imprint in his mind of everything he had seen and heard. Restif's experiences went into a book that is now considered to be one of the best chronicles of the Revolution to be written by a Parisian eyewitness. It is called Nuits de Paris (Paris Nights), two volumes of which are entitled Les Nuits Révolutionnaires and give a dramatic account of events in the French capital between 1789 and 1793. As you take your walks around revolutionary Paris you will be meeting up frequently with Restif, known as l'Hibou (the Owl), as he sets off from his home in rue de Bièvre for his nocturnal adventures.

Restif (pronounced Reteef) was rather a unique personality, born in Sacy, in the Yonne region, to a well-off farmer who had hoped, in vain, that his son would make a career in the priesthood. But Nicolas's insatiable lust for women took that particular path out of the equation, so he went to Paris as an apprentice printer, remaining in the book profession, both as a writer and a publisher, all his life. He was a well-known figure in Paris, particularly to the police, for Restif got involved quite regularly in some pretty dubious activities during these nightly expeditions that often took him to the most insalubrious spots in town. A staunch republican, he followed avidly all the political events of the Revolution, was always there when something happened, and his accounts of the great landmarks in revolutionary history are delightfully peppered with incidental chance encounters and seductions. He lived all his life defying convention, refusing to compromise himself by writing things just to make money, with the result that his resources diminished steadily during the last years of his life, and he died in poverty and misery.

SUPPORTING CAST

THE ROYALS

Louis Stanislas Xavier, Comte de Provence (1755-1824). Louis XVI's brother, future King Louis XVIII, known as Monsieur, ambitious for the throne, compromised in the Favras affair, emigrated in June 1791.

Charles-Philippe, Comte d'Artois (1757-1836). Louis XVI's youngest brother, future King Charles X, loved horse-racing and women, paid 5 million livres a year by the civil list, opposed the Revolution, the first to emigrate (July 1789), continued plotting to bring down the new regime.

Elisabeth de France, known as Madame Elisabeth (1764-Guillotined 1794). Louis XVI's youngest sister, shy, gentle and extremely pious, very close to Louis XVI, had very conservative views and abhorred the Revolution, but remained with the king and queen throughout it.

Adélaïde de France, known as Madame Adélaïde (1732-1800). Louis XVI's aunt, pretty when young, later became hard-hearted, imperious and conservative, dominated Louis XVI, hated Marie-Antoinette, emigrated in 1791.

Victoire de France, known as Madame Victoire (1733-1799). Louis XVI's aunt, fat, friendly and greedy, liked comfort, dominated by her sister Adélaïde, very pious, risked smallpox to care for her father (Louis XV), emigrated in 1791.

Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte de France, known as Madame Royale (1778-1851). Daughter of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, blonde and pretty, but very serious and proud, imprisoned in the Temple until 1795, exchanged for republican prisoners, married the Duc d'Angoulême.

Louis-Charles, Duc de Normandie (1785-1795). Louis XVI's son, dauphin, King Louis XVII after the execution of his father. Weak and sickly, imprisoned in the Temple with his parents, taken from his mother, put in the care of sans-culotte cobbler Simon, neglected, died in prison.

THE COURT

Marie-Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry (1743-Guillotined 1793). Of humble origins, Louis XV's last mistress, very beautiful, sweet natured, but controversial, hated by Marie-Antoinette, exiled after Louis XV's death, denounced by her former companion Zamor.

Hans Axel, Comte de Fersen (1755-1804). A Swedish count, came to Paris briefly in 1773 and met Marie-Antoinette, returned in 1778, entered the queen's intimate circle, was possibly her lover, very discreet, arranged the royal escape to Varennes.

Marie-Thérèse, Princesse De Lamballe (1749-1792). Widow at age 18 after one year of unhappy marriage, the queen's favourite, supplanted by Madame de Polignac, returned to support the queen, victim of the September Massacres.

Jacques Necker (1732-1804). Swiss banker, Finance Minister, criticized over the King's Accounts in 1781 and resigned, recalled in 1788, his dismissal in 1789 led to the Bastille attack and his second recall, resigned again in 1790 and fled to Switzerland.

Yolande Gabrielle, Duchesse de Polignac (1749-1793). From the petite-noblesse, became Marie-Antoinette's favourite, governess to the royal children, accused of being a bad influence on the queen but liked by Louis XVI, among the first to emigrate in 1789.

THE POLITICIANS

Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac (1755-1841). Brilliant lawyer, deputy, took a very radical stand against the monarchy, member of the Committee of Public Safety, was often defended by Robespierre, deported after 9 Thermidor.

Antoine Pierre Joseph Barnave (1761-Guillotined 1793). Deputy, very important at beginning of the Revolution, often in opposition to Mirabeau, escorted the royal family from Varennes, is said to have fallen in love with the queen, his politics changed to royalism, arrested and executed during the Terror.

Paul François, Vicomte de Barras (1755-1828). Provençal noble, deputy in the Convention, was disliked by Robespierre, Barras helped to depose him, very powerful during the Directory, exiled by Bonaparte until the Restoration.

Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne (1756-1819). Lawyer and writer, the first to propose republicanism at the Jacobin Club, a deputy and member of the Committee of Public Safety, supported Robespierre then deposed him, deported in 1795.

Jean-Marie Collot-d'Herbois (1749-1796). Actor, called the 'Trumpet of the Revolution' for his loud voice, a deputy, worked with Billaud-Varenne on the Committee of Public Safety, terrorized the city of Lyon, deposed Robespierre, deported in 1795.

Antoine Fouquier-Tinville (1746-Guillotined 1795). His cousin Desmoulins got him a job in the Justice Ministry, rigorous Public Prosecutor of the Revolutionary Tribunal, allied with the extremists, condemned to death after the Terror.

François Hanriot (1759-Guillotined 1794). Clerk, of humble origins, took an active role in deposing the king and in the September Massacres, commander of the National Guard, led sans-culotte revolts, served Robespierre and was executed with him.

Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles (1758-Guillotined 1794). Rich, cultivated, intelligent and handsome, active in the Bastille siege, a member of the Committee of Public Safety, accused by Saint-Just of spying, condemned with Danton.

Jean-Marie Roland (1734-1793). Manufacturer, befriended the Girondins, Minister of the Interior in 1792, resigned after the king's execution, fled on the arrest of the Girondins, killed himself on hearing of his wife's execution with the Girondins.

Antoine Joseph Santerre (1752-1809). Brewer in the faubourg Saint-Antoine, rich, bourgeois, a good horseman, commander of the National Guard, accompanied Louis XVI to the scaffold, imprisoned as an 'Orleanist' until 9 Thermidor.

THE CLERGY

Abbé Henri Grégoire (1750-1831). Republican priest, defender of black people and Jews, co-wrote and was the first to swear the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, president of the Assembly during the Bastille siege, remained politically active after the Terror.

Emmanuel Joseph Siéyès (1748-1836). Reluctant priest, held ambiguous opinions, his pamphlets contributed to the Estates-General becoming an Assembly, a constitutional monarchist but voted for the king's death, a reduced role from 1791 on.

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1838). Ordained in 1774 but was a non-believer, deputy in the Estates-General, worked on the first Constitution, accused of royalism, fled to the USA, became very powerful after the Revolution.

WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION

Jeanne-Marie-Ignace-Thérésia Cabarrus (1773-1835). Daughter of a Spanish banker, beautiful, married at 15, became Tallien's mistress, imprisoned in Paris, Tallien furious - he deposed Robespierre, liberated and married Thérésia, who became Barras's mistress during the Directory.

Charlotte de Corday d'Armont (1768-Guillotined 1793). Great-grandniece of the dramatist Pierre Corneille, republican, sympathetic to the Girondins, fixated on Marat as the cause of all France's ills, went to Paris and murdered him as he sat in his bath.

Anne-Lucile-Philippe Desmoulins (Née Laridon-Duplessis) (1771-Guillotined 1794). Daughter of a wealthy Paris bourgeois, married Camille Desmoulins, supported him politically, their son Horace was born in July 1792, she was arrested on false conspiracy charges during Camille's trial.

Marie Olympe de Gouge (1748-Guillotined 1793). Beautiful, a playwright and feminist, published 'The Rights of Women', founded women's clubs, constitutional monarchist, pro-Girondin, arrested as a counter-revolutionary.

Manon Jeanne Roland (Née Philipon) (1754-Guillotined 1793). Daughter of a Paris engraver, serious and cultivated, married Jean-Marie Roland, exerted an enormous influence on the Girondins, who evolved politically in her salon, arrested with them.

Marie-Josèphe Tascher de la Pagerie, known as Josephine (1763-1814). Creole from Martinique, married Alexandre de Beauharnais, they had an amicable separation, imprisoned during the Terror, became Barras's mistress, and then Empress when she married Napoléon.

Anne-Josephe Théroigne de Méricourt (1762-1817). Belgian actress, an active, courageous and violent revolutionary, led the women of Paris to Versailles in October 1789, friend of the Girondins, publicly whipped in the Tuileries gardens, diagnosed as insane and died in an asylum.

SCIENTISTS AND SCHOLARS

Jean Sylvain Bailly (1736-Guillotined 1793). Brilliant mathematician, astronomer, deputy to the Third Estate, presided over the Tennis Court Oath, the first mayor of Paris, held responsible and executed for the Champ-de-Mars Massacre.

Jean Antoine, Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794). Mathematician, philosopher, concerned for public education, an ally of the Girondins, against the death penalty for the king, criticised the 1793 constitution, arrested, killed himself in his cell.

Joseph Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814). Physician, was the deputy who rallied the Third Estate to go to the Tennis Court, designed a new 'humane' beheading machine, arrested as a moderate during the Terror, then returned to medicine.

Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-Guillotined 1794). Brilliant chemist, very wealthy, became a Farmer-General in 1769, active in the construction of the Farmers-General Wall around Paris, arrested and condemned with the other Farmers-General.

ARTISTS AND ARCHITECTS

Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825). Studied in Rome, exhibited at the Paris Salon, inspired by the new era, official painter of the Revolution, Robespierre's ally, deserted him on 9 Thermidor, imprisoned, later became the 'painter of the Emperor', left for Brussels, where he died.

Richard Mique (1728-Guillotined 1794). Louis XVI's chief architect, redecorated Marie-Antoinette's private apartments, built the Belvedere and Temple of Love in the gardens of Versailles, decorated the Petit Trianon and the queen's hamlet. Accused with his son of a conspiracy to save Marie-Antoinette.

Hubert Robert (1733-1808). Worked in Rome on drawings of ancient ruins, returned to Paris in 1765, decorated the great houses, specialized in Paris scenes and romantic ruins, imprisoned during the Terror but survived, directed the restoration of the Louvre after the Revolution.

Marie-Louise Vigee-Lebrun (1755-1842). Studied under her father, married an art dealer, official painter to Marie-Antoinette, did over twenty portraits of her, including the famous one with her children, emigrated at the start of the Revolution, returned on the accession of Louis XVIII.

WRITERS AND POETS

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799). Son of a clockmaker, was harp teacher to Louis XV's daughters, turbulent life of law suits, intrigue and prison, helped arm the American rebels, author of 'The Barber of Seville' and 'The Marriage of Figaro'.

André Chénier (1762-Guillotined 1794). Poet, led a life full of amorous adventures, supported the Revolution until it became violent, his Ode to Charlotte Corday made him suspect, arrested in 1794, wrote 'The Young Captive' in prison.

Philippe Fabre D'églantine (1750-Guillotined 1794). Began as a travelling actor, met Danton at the Cordeliers Club, worked with him in the Justice Ministry, a deputy, wrote the revolutionary calendar, condemned with the Dantonists.

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (1740-1814). Wrote in prison, where he spent most of his life for various 'sexual crimes', the Bastille until 1789, the Charenton asylum until 1790, Picpus during the Terror, then back to Charenton, where he died.

Honoré Gabriel Riquetti, comte de Mirabeau. (Authors private collection)