Though a deserved favourite with the people. the temperate measures which he pursued did not well accord with the passions of an unbridled mob, from whom the fetters of despotism had been but newly broken. Bailly saw with regret, the dreadful ex treme to which their fury was hurrying them on. He resolved to make one effort for the preserva tion of tranquillity, and hoped that by measures of decisive energy he might yet oppose an effectual barrier to the swelling tide of universal anarchy. He therefore opposed the violent proceedings of Ma rat and Hubert. He arrested the deputies from the military insurgents at Nancy. He exerted himself to persuade the populace to allow the royal family to depart for St Cloud ; and on the 17th July, 1791, when the mob demanded the abolition of monarchy, and assaulted the troops that were called out to dis perse them, he ordered the soldiers to fire, by which about forty persons were killed, and above four hun dred wounded. By these measures he lost the fa vour of the populace, and resigned the mayoralty on the 16th November 1791, when the constituent as sembly was dissolved.
The ill health into which he had now fallen, induced him to travel through different parts of France in 1792 and 1793, and to pursue in the bosom of peace ful retirement those delightful researches which the political convulsions of his country had so cruelly in terrupted. During this seclusion, he amused himself in composing memoirs of the events in which he bore such a conspicuous part;* and when employed in this occupation, lie was arrested by the orders of Robe spierre, and condemned to death on the 10th of No vember, 1793. Clothed in the red shirt, Bailly was placed in a cart, with his hands tied behind his back, and driven to the fatal guillotine, erected on the spot where he had ordered the military to fire upon the peo ple. The very populace who had once adored him, and whose best interests he had so near his heart, threw mud upon him as he passed, and followed him with the most insulting reproaches ; whilst the cold rain inces santly poured cam, the grey head of the venerable sage.
Having reached the fatal spot, it became necessary to remove the guillotine to firmer ground. During this operation, Bailly was taken from the cart, and com pelled to walk round the field, to glut the insatiable cruelty of the mob. The brutal multitude spit upon him as he passed, and, notwithstanding the exertions of the executioners, some of them even struck him upon the face. When the apparatus of death was again prepared, Bailly, drenched with rain, and shi vering with cold, ascended the platform. " You tremble, Bailly," cried one of the mob in a tone of insult. " I tremble, it is true," replied the philo sopher, " but not with fear." Such were the last words of a man, who, during a life of 57 years, acquired the highest reputation as a philosopher and an elegant writer. Even in the tur moils of a political life, so foreign to his temper and his studies, he obtained the approbation of the most opposite factions, and left behind him a character of the most disinterested integrity. When he held the office of mayor, he spent part of his fortune in re lieving thewants of the poor; and he exhibited the same affectionate disposition in educating eight nephews with all the tenderness of a father. The person of Bailly was cons;derably above the middle size, his de portment was sedate and grave, and his countenance expressed the intelligence and the goodness which he possessed. In the year 1787, he married Jeanne Leseigneur, the widow of Raymond Gaye, the trea surer of the clergy, who had been his intimate friend for 25 years. See Bailly Mist. De l' Astronomie, tom. iii. p. 69, 70, 180. Journal Encyclopedique de Juin 1773. Decade Philosophique, litteraire et Politique, 18 Fey. 1795. La Lande Bibliographie Astronomique, p. 730. Riou ffe, Memoiresd'unDetenu.
(A)