The
eloquence of Vergniaud and logic of Guadet might turn the tables at
the last moment. Consequently, a prompt decree authorizes the
tribunal to stop proceedings as soon as the jury becomes sufficiently
enlightened, which is the case after the seventh session of the court,
the record of death suddenly greeting the accused, who are not allowed
to defend themselves. One of them, Valaz?, stabs himself in open
court, and the next day the national head-chopper strikes off the
remaining twenty heads in thirty-eight minutes. - Still more
expeditious are the proceedings against the accused who avoid a trial.
Gorsas, seized in Paris on the 8th of October, is guillotined the same
day. Birotteau, seized at Bordeaux, on the 24th of October, mounts
the scaffold within twenty-four hours. The others, tracked like
wolves, wandering in disguise from one hiding-place to another, and
most of them arrested in turn, have only choice of several kinds of
death. Cambon is killed in defending himself. Lidon, after having
defended himself, blows out his brains, Condorcet takes poison in the
guard-room of Bourg-la-Reine. Roland kills himself with his sword on
the highway.
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