Georges Danton displays such vehemence before the revolutionary tribunal that his enemies fear he will gain the crowd's favor.

The Convention, in its cowardice, assents to a proposal made by Saint-Just that, if a prisoner shows want of respect for justice, the tribunal might pronounce sentence without further delay.

Danton, Desmoulins, and many other actual or accused Dantonist associates are tried from April 3 through 5 before the Revolutionary Tribunal.

The trial is less criminal in nature than political, and as such unfolds in an irregular fashion.

The accused are prevented from defending themselves by a decree of the National Convention.

This fact, together with confusing and often incidental denunciations (for instance, a report that Danton, while engaged in political work in Brussels, had appropriated a carriage filled with several hundred thousand livres of table linen) and threats made by prosecutor Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville towards members of the jury, help to ensure a guilty verdict.

Additionally, the accused are denied the right to have witnesses appear on their behalf, though they have submitted requests for several -- including, in Desmoulins' case, Robespierre.

The verdict is passed in the absence of the accused, who had been removed from the courtroom to prevent unrest among the trial's observers.

Their execution is scheduled for the same day.

Danton is at once condemned, and led, in company with fourteen others, including Desmoulins, to the guillotine.

"I leave it all in a frightful welter," he said; "not a man of them has an idea of government.

Robespierre will follow me; he is dragged down by me.

Ah, better be a poor fisherman than meddle with the government of men!"

The phrase 'a poor fisherman' is almost certainly a reference to Saint Peter, Danton having reconciled to Catholicism.

In reference to his belief that Robespierre would meet a similar fate, his last words to the crowd are, "My only regret is that I am going before that rat Robespierre."

Danton's true last words are addressed to his executioner: "Don't forget to show my head to the people.

It's well worth seeing."

Jean-Charles Pichegru, as Général de division and in command of the army of the Rhine, had been tasked with the reconquest of Alsace and the reorganization of the defeated troops of the French Republic, in cooperation with Lazare Hoche and the army of the Moselle.

They had succeeded, as Pichegru had made use of the morale of his soldiers to win numerous skirmishes, and Hoche had forced the lines at Haguenau and relieved Landau.

Hoche had been arrested In March 1793,  probably owing to his colleague’s denunciations, and Pichegru had become commander-in-chief of the army of the Rhine-and-Moselle. (Hoche will escape execution, however, though imprisoned in Paris until the fall of Robespierre.)

Pichegru had then been summoned to succeed Jourdan in the army of the North, subsequently fighting three major campaigns of one year.

Pichegru was born at Arbois (or, according to Charles Nodier, at Les Planches, near Lons-le-Saulnier), as the son of a peasant.

The friars of Arbois, having been entrusted with his education, had sent him to the military school of Brienne-le-Château.

In 1783, he had entered the 1st regiment of artillery, where he had rapidly rises to the rank of Adjutant-Second Lieutenant and briefly served in the American Revolutionary War.

When the Revolution erupted in 1789, Pichegru had become leader of the Jacobin Club in Besançon, and had been elected Lieutenant Colonel when a regiment of volunteers of the départment of the Gard marched through the city.

The fine condition of his regiment had been noticed in the French Revolutionary Army section of the Rhine, and his organizing ability had gotten him appointed in the headquarters, and then promoted Général de brigade.

Lazare Carnot and Louis de Saint-Just had been sent In 1793 to find roturier (non-aristocratic) generals who could prove successful.

Carnot had discovered Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, and Saint-Just had discovered Louis Lazare Hoche and Pichegru.

The forces of the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and Habsburg Austria hold a strong position along the Sambre to the North Sea.

After attempting to break the Austrian center, Pichegru suddenly turns their right, and defeats the Count of Clerfayt at Cassel, ...

...Menin and Courtrai, while his subordinate ...

Joseph Souham defeats Prince Josias of Coburg in the battle of Tourcoing on May 18, 1794.

Robespierre has used his influence over the Jacobin Club to dominate the Commune of Paris through his followers.

Two of them, Jean-Baptiste Fleuriot-Lescot and Claude-François de Payan, are elected mayor and procurator of the Commune respectively.

Robespierre trieds to influence the army through his follower Louis de Saint-Just, whom he sends on a mission to the frontier.

On May 23, only one day after the attempted assassination of Collot d'Herbois, Robespierre's life was also in danger, as a young woman by the name of Cécile Renault had been arrested after having approached his place of residence with two small knives; she and forty others are executed in June.

At this point, the decree of 22 Prairial (also known as law of 22 Prairial) is introduced to the public without the consultation from the Committee of General Security, which in turn doubles the number of executions permitted by the Committee of Public Safety.

Georges Couthon, Robesbierre’s ally on the Committee, has introduced and carried the drastic law, under which the Tribunal becomes a simple court of condemnation without need of witnesses.

This law permits executions to be carried out even under simple suspicion of citizens thought to be counterrevolutionaries without extensive trials.

When Robespierre allows this law to be passed, the people of France begin to question him and the Committee because they are executing people for seemingly meaningless reasons, and also because they had passed a law without the help of the Committee of General Security.

This is part of the beginning of Robespierre's downfall.

Robespierre has struck down one by one the other prominent leaders of the revolution of both the right, (the Rolands and the Girondists), the ultra left (Jacques Hébert and the Herbertists), and the moderates (Georges Danton and his associates).

However, at the time of Robespierre's "Festival of the Supreme Being", Fouché had ventured to mock the theistic revival which Robespierre had then inaugurated.

A sharp exchange had taken place between them, and Robespierre tries to expel Fouché from the Jacobin Club on July 14, 1794.

At this time, expulsion from the club is tantamount to a death sentence.

Fouché, however, is working with his usual energy and plots Robespierre's overthrow from behind the scenes while in hiding in Paris.

Because Robespierre is losing his influence and because Fouché is under the protection of Barras, Fouché ultimately survives this expulsion.

Remaining ultraleftists (Collot d'Herbois, Billaud-Varenne) and moderates (Bourdon de l'Oise, Fréron), who had won the support of the nonaligned majority of the Convention (Marais), also opposes Robespierre's reign.

Fouché is reported to have worked furiously on Robespierre's overthrow.

As both a ruthless suppressor of Federalist rebellion and one of the proponents of Robespierre's overthrow, Fouché demonstrated the mercilessness that politics have taken on in France during the de-Christianization period.

Fouché is a dangerous critic of Robespierre, and his influence undoubtedly contributes to Robespierre's apparent nervous breakdown, which loosens his hold on Parisian politics and the Convention, and ultimately leads to his overthrow and execution.

Reports are coming into Paris about excesses committed by the envoys sent en-mission to the provinces, particularly Jean-Lambert Tallien in Bordeaux and Joseph Fouché in Lyons.

Robespierre has them recalled to Paris to account for their actions and then expels them from the Jacobins club.

However, they evade arrest.

Fouché spends the evenings moving house to house, warning members of the Convention that Robespierre is after them, while organizing a coup d'état.

Robespierre appears at the Convention on 26 July (8th Thermidor, year II, according to the Revolutionary calendar), and delivers a two-hour-long speech.

He defends himself against charges of dictatorship and tyranny, then proceeds to warn of a conspiracy against the Republic.

Robespierre implies that members of the Convention are a part of this conspiracy, though when pressed he refuses to provide any names.

The speech, however, alarms members, particularly given Fouché's warnings.

Those members who feel that Robespierre is alluding to them try to prevent the speech from being printed, and a bitter debate ensues until Barère forces an end to it.

Later that evening, Robespierre delivers the same speech again at the Jacobin Club, where it is very well received.

Saint-Just begins to give a speech in support of Robespierre the next day.

However, those who had seen him working on his speech the night before expect accusations to arise from it.

He has time to give only a small part of his speech before Jean-Lambert Tallien interrupts him.

While the accusations begin to pile up, Saint-Just remains uncharacteristically silent.

Robespierre then attempts to secure the tribunal to speak but his voice is shouted down.

Robespierre soon finds himself at a loss for words after one deputy calls for his arrest and another, Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier, gives a mocking impression of him.

When one deputy realizes Robespierre's inability to respond, the man shouts, "The blood of Danton chokes him!"

A faction within the National Convention including Jacobin revolutionary Paul Francois Jean Nicolas, Vicomte de Barras and military commissioner Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot, topples Robespierre.

The Convention orders the arrest of Robespierre, his brother Augustin, Couthon, Saint-Just, François Hanriot and Le Bas.

Troops from the Commune, under General Coffinhal, arrive to free the prisoners and then march against the Convention itself.

The Convention responds by ordering troops of its own under Barras to be called out.

When the Commune's troops hear the news of this, order begins to break down, and Hanriot orders his remaining troops to withdraw to the Hôtel de Ville, where Robespierre and his supporters also gather.

The Convention declares them to be outlaws, meaning that upon verification the fugitives can be executed within twenty-four hours without a trial.

As the night goes on, the forces of the Commune desert the Hôtel de Ville and, at around two in the morning, those of the Convention under the command of Barras arrive there.

In order to avoid capture, Augustin Robespierre throws himself out of a window, only to break both of his legs; Couthon is found lying at the bottom of a staircase; Le Bas commits suicide; another radical shoots himself in the head.

Robespierre tries to kill himself with a pistol but manages only to shatter his lower jaw, although some eyewitnesses claim that Robespierre had been shot by Charles-André Merda.

Robespierre is moved to a table in the room of the Committee of Public Safety, where he awaits execution for the remainder of the night.

He lies on the table bleeding abundantly until a doctor is brought in to attempt to stop the bleeding from his jaw.

Robespierre's last recorded words may have been "Merci, monsieur," to a man that had given him a handkerchief for the blood on his face and clothing.

Later, Robespierre is held in the same containment chamber where Marie Antoinette, the wife of King Louis XVI, had been held.

The next day, July 28, 1794, Robespierre is guillotined without trial in the Place de la Révolution.

His brother Augustin, Couthon, Saint-Just, Hanriot and twelve other followers, among them the cobbler Simon, are also executed.

When clearing Robespierre's neck the executioner tears off the bandage that is holding his shattered jaw in place, producing an agonized scream until the fall of the blade silences him.

Together with those executed with him, he is buried in a common grave at the newly opened Errancis Cemetery (cimetière des Errancis) (March 1794 – April 1797) (near what is now the Place Prosper-Goubaux).

A plaque indicating the former site of the cimetière des Errancis is located at 97 rue de Monceau, Paris 75008.

Between 1844 and 1859 (probably in 1848), the remains of all those buried there will be moved to the Catacombs of Paris.

The reign of the standing Committee of Public Safety is ended.

New members are appointed the day after Robespierre's execution, and term limits are imposed (a quarter of the committee is to retire every three months); its powers will be reduced piece by piece.