Élisabeth Lebas corrects Alphonse de Lamartine’s Histoire des girondins(1847)
Source: Le conventionnel Lebas: d’après des documents inédits et les mémoires de sa veuve (1901) page 327-331
Volume 4 — page 341: ”Saint-Just… mute as an oracle and sentient as an axiom, seemed to have stripped away all human sensibility to personify in him the cold intelligence and the ruthless impulse of the Revolution, etc… his passion had, so to speak, petrified his entrails. His logic had contracted the impassiveness of a geometry and the brutality of a material force. It was he who, in intimate and long-lasting conversations in the night under Duplay's roof, had most combated what he called Robespierre's weaknesses of soul and his reluctance to shed the king's blood, etc.” (In the hand of the son of Lebas): My mother did not recognize Saint-Just in this portrait. Where do you know that from?"
Volume 5 — page 65. (Interior aspect of the Convention during the trial of Louis XVI): ”The first benches of these popular stands were occupied by butcher boys, their enameled aprons rolled up on one side of their belts and the handles of long knives, etc…” Mark of denial.
Volume 5 — page 73: ”Robespierre, having returned to Duplay's house that evening and discussing the king's judgment, seemed to protest against the vote of the Duke of Orleans: 'to listen to his heart and to recuse himself, he did not want or he did not dare to do it: the nation would have been more magnanimous than he!” Word from Robespierre on d'Orleans made up.
Volume 6 — page 35: “The bourgeoisie, the bank, the upper class, the men of letters, the artists, the landowners, were almost all of the party which wanted to moderate and contain anarchy. They promised the orators of the Gironde an army against the suburbs, etc…” Lamartine does not explain the temporary triumph of the Girondins. See my husband's letters.
Volume 6 — page 300: ”Love warmed, without softening, the hearts of these men. Couthon's tenderness for the devoted woman who consoled his infirm life, Saint-Just's stormy and passionate feelings for Lebas's sister, Robespierre's grave and chaste predilection for his host's second daughter, Lebas's love for the youngest, etc…” Correction: very calm feelings.
Volume 7 — page 105: ”Fort Vauban was taken by the Austrians, Landau was about to fall. Saint-Just and Lebas were sent to Alsace to intimidate treason or weakness with death.” (Mark of protest.)
Volume 7 — Page 212: (About the proscriptions of Collot d'Herbois and Fouché in Lyons.) "Fouché, in his letters to Duplay, endeavored to circumvent Robespierre, and presented Lyon as a permanent counter-revolution." Letters of Duplay — false. [1]
Volume 7 — Page 232 (Imprisonment of Madame Roland) “They arrested her in spite of her summons, and threw her into another prison, at Sainte-Pélagie, that sewer of vices where the prostitutes of the streets of Paris were swept away. One wanted to debase her through contact and torture her through her modesty.” (Note from the son of Lebas:) Madame Roland was sent to Sainte Pélagie by the Commune; my mother to Saint-Lazare by the Thermidorians.
Volume 7 — page 287 and following: ”Robespierre, now dominant in the Committee of Public Safety, threw in notes, since revealed, the vague outlines of the government of justice, equality and freedom… When will, he wrote, their interest (interest of the rich and the government) be confused with that of the people? Never! "To that terrible word, etc...." Never! — Papers seized and falsified by Courtois. [2]
Volume 7 — page 341: ”Saint-Just… brought to the battlefield the enthusiasm of his youth and the example of an intrepidity that astonished the soldier. He spared no more his blood than his fame, etc…” So his heart was not petrified.
Volume 7 — page 342: ”He sent to the guillotine the president of the revolutionary tribunal of Strasbourg…” He sent to the revolutionary tribunal.
Volume 7 — page 343: ”Lebas, his friend and almost always his colleague, had been Robespierre's classmate.” Fellow patriot, not classmate.
Volume 7 — page 344: ”Lebas had become the commensal of this family (the Duplay family).” Not the commensal: the friend.
Volume 7 — pages, 344, 345 et 346 (reproduction of letters from Lebas to his fiancée). Made up letters.
Volume 7 — page 396. ”Hébert’s wife, a nun freed from the cloister by the Revolution, but worthy of another husband, frequented the Duplay house.” Invention.
Volume 7 — page 409. (Arrest of Hébert, and his friends) “They lamented, they shed tears, a spy of Robespierre, imprisoned as their accomplice, in order to reveal their confidences…” A spy of the Committee. (The Committee of Public Safety which had just instructed Collot d'Herbois to replace Robespierre at the session of the Jacobins which immediately preceded the arrest.)
Volume 8 — page 8. (Attempt to reconcile Danton and Robespierre): “An interview was accepted by the two leaders. It took place at a dinner in Charenton at the house of Panis, their mutual friend…” Narrative of the dinner meeting between D and R — Melodrama.
Volume 8 — page 67. (Robespierre's words on the death of Danton and Camille Desmoulins): ”Poor Camille! Why couldn't I save him! But he wanted to get lost! As for Danton, I know very well that he clears the way for me; but it is necessary that, innocent or guilty, we must all give our heads to the Republic…” (Lamartine adds): “He pretended to moan…” He pretended to moan (Mark of protest)
Volume 8 — page 76: (About the letter from Madame Duplessis in favor of her daughter Lucile Desmoulins) “This letter remained unanswered. Robespierre… either did not receive it, or pretended to ignore it. He was silent…” Who proves that he received this letter? If he did not receive it, why reproach him for not having paid attention to it?
Volume 8 — page 153. ”Saint-Just, his only confident.” His only confident?
Volume 8 — page 159: ”…Finally, Courtois, deputy of Aube, friend of Danton, having never applauded his crimes but never betrayed his memory, an honest man whose honest and moral republicanism had not hardened his heart. Praise of Courtois!
Volume 8 — page 207 (Feast of the Supreme Being): “A symbolic mountain rose in the center of the Champ-de-Mars, in place of the old altar of the fatherland. Access was difficult. Robespierre, Couthon carried in an armchair, Saint-Just, Lebas, placed themselves alone on the summit. ?
Volume 8 — page 249. (About Dom Gerle): ”Robespierre often received the former monk at the Duplay’s.” (Note from Lebas's son:) My mother saw him two or three times.
Volume 8 — page 255: ”Trial, a man of the theater and mutual friend, took Robespierre to Madame de Sainte-Amaranthe. He was received there as a dictator. He sat down at the table in the middle of a circle of guests chosen by himself, etc…” Interview of Robespierre with the Sainte-Amaranthe — false
Volume 8 — page 257: ”Make every effort, Payan wrote to Robespierre, to diminish in the eyes of public opinion the importance that they want to give to the Catherine Théos affair…” Payan. — is his letter authentic?
Volume 8 — page 278: ”The fear that the insurrection, without moderator and without limits, would break out of its own accord and carry off the Convention, which he regarded as the only center of the country, finally determined Robespierre not to act, but to speak. … He only recalls Saint-Just, his brother and Lebas, to assist him in the crisis or to die with him. (Note from Lebas's son) My father had been in Paris for six weeks and more.
Volume 8 — page 366. ”Robespierre, carried by four gendarmes on a stretcher, his face covered by a bloody handkerchief, led the procession. The carriers of Couthon, etc. Robespierre the younger, having fainted, was carried by his arms by two men of the people. Lebas' corpse was covered with a bloodstained tablecloth. Saint-Just… followed on foot.” The corpse of Lebas — Error. (It is these passages from Lamartine that Mme Le Bas seems to be referring to in the last part of the manuscript reproduced above.)
Volume 8 — page 369. ”After the dressing, the wounded were all transferred and brought together in the same cell at the Conciergerie. Saint-Just would wait for them there beside Lebas. — ibid
Volume 8 — page 370. ”At five o'clock, the tumbrels were waiting for the condemned at the foot of the main staircase. Robespierre, his brother, Couthon, Hanriot, Lebas were either human remains or corpses. They were tied by the legs, by the throne and by the arms, to the wood of the first cart.” — ibid
Volume 8 — page 374: ”These twenty-two thrones were thrown pell-mell into the dumpster with the corpse of Lebas” — (We have already said that this passage, on the edition of the History of the Girondins owned by Mrs. Lebas, was annotated with the word ” No")
Volume 8 — page 372: (At the time of the passage in front of the Duplay house, of the tumbrel driving Robespierre to the execution) ”A child was holding a butcher's calf filled with ox blood and deceiving a broom on it, the goettes were thrown against the walls of the house. Fable.
Volume 8 — page 372: On the evening of the same day, these furies of vengeance invaded the prison where Duplay's wife had been thrown, strangled her and hung her from the rod of its curtains. That very evening its furies — la Lacombe.
[1] Élisabeth is mistaken here, Collot d’Herbois did in fact send a letter regarding Lyon to Maurice Duplay December 5th 1793.
[2] Élisabeth is mistaken here, the ”catechism” where Robespierre wrote this has been accepted as his.
Favorite quotes from the fictional documentary on Robespierre :
Somebody : Don't you like foods ?
Robespierre : I do. I love fruits a lot, especially those wonderful fruits called oranges.
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Catherine : Do you know Maximilien, you're the most attractive man in our society and maybe even in our city of Arras.
Maximilien laugh : Don't mock me. Dear Catherine, it's necessary that I reveal to you the secret of my heart : I haven't known happiness until this hour.
Catherine laugh : Maximilien. What a gallant man you are.
Maximilien resentful face : Excuse me...I must leave you.
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Speaker : Can you give us your proof that Hebert was Danton's accomplice and paid by foreign country ?
Robespierre begins his speech.
Speaker : I repeat the question. Do you have any evidence ?
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Journalist : But don't you think revolutionaries could form a new caste ?
Vadier : I don't understand...
Journalist : A new aristocracy based on administrative power ?
Vadier's brain stops working.
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Augustin : I'm as guilty as my brother. I share his virtue, I want to share his fate. I also ask for the decree of accusation against me !
Maxime : No ! Augustin, no ! My brother was always away on missions. You can take my life but don't touch my brother !
Lebas : I refuse to share the opprobrium of this decree. I also demand my arrest !
Maxime : No Philippe ! Think about Élisabeth ! Think about your son !
