- According to this
system, which, up to Thermidor 9, grows worse and worse, imprisonment
becomes a torture, oftentimes mortal, slower and more painful than the
guillotine, and to such an extent that, to escape it, Champfort opens
his veins and Condorcet swallows poison.[21]The third expedient
consists of murder, with or without trial. - 178 tribunals, of which
40 are ambulatory, pronounce in every part of the territory sentences
of death which are immediately executed on the spot.[22] Between
April 6, 1793, and Thermidor 9, year II., (July 27th, 1794) that of
Paris has 2,625 persons guillotined,[23] while the provincial judges
do as much work as the Paris judges. In the small town of Orange
alone, they guillotine 331 persons. In the single town of Arras they
have 299 men and 93 women guillotined. At Nantes, the revolutionary
tribunals and military committees have, on the average, 100 persons a
day guillotined, or shot, in all 1,971. In the city of Lyons the
revolutionary committee admit 1,684, while Cadillot, one of
Robespierre's correspondents, advises him of 6,000.[24] - The
statement of these murders is not complete, but 17,000 have been
enumerated,[25] "most of them effected without any formality, evidence
or direct charge," among others the murder of "more than 1200 women,
several of whom were octogenarians and infirm;"[26] particularly the
murder of 60 women or young girls, condemned to death, say the
warrants, for having attended the services of unsworn priests, or for
having neglected the services of a sworn priest.
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