In the Convention to which he was elected as the first deputy from Paris, Robespierre be came the leader of the Mountain. The Giron dists turned the full force of their eloquence against him agd accused him of aiming at the dictatorship. In the crisis which attended the trial of Louis XVI, Robespierre for once as sumed a firm and definite line of action. He pleaded for the. death of the king and by so doing gained over to his side the party of Dan ton, Carrot and Baland-Varetme, who were disgusted by the temporizing policy of the Gi rondists at a time when France was in immi nent danger of foreign invasion and needed a strong government to make headway against her enemies. The condemnation of Louis XVI was a triumph for Robespierre, who, however, did not cease from his attacks on the Giron dists. The struggle became one of life and death. In April, Robespierre denounced theta in the body of the Convention and on the fate ful clays of 31 May June the destruction of the party was accomplished with the aid of the Parisian mob. See GIRONDISTS.
In July 1793, Robespierre was made a mem ber of the Committee of Public which for a year was to be the virtual ruler of France. To curb dissension at home, so as to present a united front to the foreign foes of the• coun try, the committee organized the Terror with which the name of Robespierre has become, through legend, synonymous. To the world at large Robespierre appeared as the master of the committee and the ruler of France. As a matter of fact, his power was in no way abso lute. Of the 12 members of the committee, the majority were quite opposed to his Roust seauan ideals and only two of the 12, Couthon and Saint Just, were professed followers of Robespierre. The rest of the committee were practical men of affairs, like Carnot, Beilaud "Varenne, or Collot d'Herbois, upon whose shoulders fell the real task of government. Robespierre's services to the committee were such as his immense popularity and spotless reputation could render it. He was the apol ogist for the committee in the Convention and before the people, but he differed from his as sociates entirely so far as the motives of his action are concerned. While the Terror to them was but a thorough, though possibly radi cal, means for establishing peace within the country, Robespierre saw in the Terror an ef fective instrument for bringing about the erec tion of Rousseau's ideal state, by wiping out all opposed to his favorite theories. He first turned against Hebert (q.v.) and his followers in the Paris Commune, who had aroused his enmity by their uncompromising democracy, in their display of which they were g•uilty of the most ridiculous 'excesses and their professed atheism, which attained its climax in the estab lishment of the worship of Reason by Chaum ette. The Heberthts were brought to the scaf fold on 24 March 1794, and they were followed by Damon, Camille Desmoulins and their fol lowers on 5 April. On 13 April came the turn of Chatunette. Danton fell because he had begun to advocate a moderation of the Ter ror and thereby had incurred the enmity both of the men of action on the Committee of Safety and of Robespierre, to whom alike the continu ance of the Terror seemed essential, To hasten the work Robespierre caused the infamous law of the 22 Prairial (10 June) to be proposed by Couthon, whereby the revolutionary tribunal was freed from all 'restrictions of legal proced ure and thus improved sent nearly 1,300 per sons to the scaffold between •12 June and 28 July.
On 8 June Robespierre attained the zenith of his career, when, as president of the Con vention, he celebrated with great pomp• the Feast of the Supreme Being, whose 'existence had been formally admitted by the' Convention in the preceding month. His fall foilovied speedily. The men on the Committee of Safety who had suffered his official leadership as long as he was content to remain largely a figure head, turned upon him when he began seri ously to assert mastery over the committee.
Besides, it became apparent that the excesses of the Terror could not go on and that repara tion would be' demanded and Robespierre' was chosen as the scapegoat of the committee. The attack on Robespierre began 17 June, when Vadier, a member of the committee of general security, satirized' him before the Convention. Instead of joining battle, as he was urged to do, Robespierre went into retirement for more than a month to prepare his defense. On 26 July he appeared in the Convention and de clared that the Terror should cease and that the committees of public safety and general secu rity should be reorganized. Ominous threats appeared in his oration, which for a time held the Convention terror-stricken and caused it to vote his proposition. Quickly, however, he was assailed by various orators, the Convention re considered its action and in the session of the following day, the 27 July, the fateful 9th Ther midor, the secret intrigues of his associates on the committee, the fear of his intended victims and the resentment of the Dantonists, who had not forgotten the death of their leader, fell upon Robespierre. His arrest was ordered and with him that of Saint Just, Couthon, Lebas and his younger brother, Augustin Robespierre. Rescued, by the national guards under Henriot and brought to the Hotel de Ville, the great Terrorist showed no capacity for action. The Convention placed him outside of the law and despatched a portion of the national guard un der Barras against him. In the assault Robes pierre was shot in the jaw by a gendarme and taken in a pitiful condition to prison. On the following day he was brought before the revolu tionary tribunal and with Couthon and Saint Just and others of his followers was sent to the guillotine. Consult Aulard, A.,
So ciete des Jacobins) (1891) ; Hamel, L. E..,
ROBERVAL, Giles Personae, or Personier, de, French mathematician : b. Roberval, near Beauvais, 8 Aug. 1602; d. Paris, 27 Oct. 1675. His family name was Personae, the name of his birthplace being added to it. He studied at Paris in' 1627-31, and was then appointed professor of philosophy at Gervais College. In 1633 he was called to the chair of mathematits at the Royal College of France, which he occupied until has death. He was the first to discover the method of indivisibles but kept it for his personal use, while Cavalieri published a similar method of his own inven tion, thus raising a question as to priority of discovery in which much animosity developed. He discovered the famous °Robervallian a method of determining tangents somewhat similar to that of Descartes, again raising a question as to priority of discovery, and a method of determining the area of a cycloid. Outside the field of pure mathematics he devoted considerable study to the system of the universe, and he invented the Robervallian balance. He was one of the original members of the French Academy of Science. During his lifetime he published nothing, but his works were published after his death by Abbe Galois in the (Recueil) of the (Memoires de l'Aca& emit des (1693).