The world: historical and actual . rat. He was anorator very popular withthe lower classes of theParis populace. Hisstentorian voice was al-ways raised for bloodand vengeance. He fill-ed the position of Min-ister of Justice during the time when that meantchief of the guillotine. So long as the Girondists,or moderate republicans, furnished victims for theknife and block, Danton. Marat and Robespierre, the triumvirate of terror,cooperated, but whenthe thirst for blood de-manded victims fromamong the Jacobinsthemselves, dissensionwas inevitable. Dantonwas an atheist, Robes-pierre a deist. The lat
The world: historical and actual . rat. He was anorator very popular withthe lower classes of theParis populace. Hisstentorian voice was al-ways raised for bloodand vengeance. He fill-ed the position of Min-ister of Justice during the time when that meantchief of the guillotine. So long as the Girondists,or moderate republicans, furnished victims for theknife and block, Danton. Marat and Robespierre, the triumvirate of terror,cooperated, but whenthe thirst for blood de-manded victims fromamong the Jacobinsthemselves, dissensionwas inevitable. Dantonwas an atheist, Robes-pierre a deist. The latterwas indeed hostile to allexisting and organizedreligions, but he believedin a Supreme Being, andcaused Danton to be exe-cuted for enthroningReason as the God ofworship. Danton fellApril 5, , the last of the Jacobin leaders to per-ish in the furnace of his own construction, was alawyer of Arras. In the early part of the Revolutionhe bore an inconspicuous part. It was as the head DANTON. 280 THE FRENCH Robespierre. of the Jacobin club that he realized his was an earnest advocate of the execution of theking, and the prosecution ofthe Girondists. After theexecution of Danton and theassassination of Marat hewas virtually dictator ofFrance. Then it was thathe attempted to undo influence of Dantonj&by a speech in honor of theDeity. He made himselfridiculous by posing in thecharacter of a pietist, and tothe laugh raised over his deism rather than to the de-testation of his cruelties, may be attributed his falland execution. His power and prestige were drownedin ridicule. When his arrest was decreed he tried invain to lift his voice in self-defense. The privilege hehad so often denied to others was refused him, andthe next day after he had been hurried to prison hewas guillotined. His name will forever stand as asynonym for the horrors of the Reign of Terror. Itwas his bad preeminence to be foremost in disgracing,perverting and r
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