In Bordeaux, Marseilles, and Lyons, which had resisted the authorities at Paris, but had been subdued, the most barbarous massacres were perpetrated. Carrier in Nantes invented novel horrors (the noyades). Toulon endeavored to escape the fate of these cities by surrendering to the British; but it was recaptured and treated with the same cruelty. Similar measures marked the civil conflict in all parts of the kingdom, the forces of the convention overrunning and ravaging the country. Meantime the war of the coalition against France did not make much progress. The allied powers were embarrassed by complications among themselves. Paris itself had been fairly given over to anarchy: all industry was at an end, and the mob plundered as it chose, or was supported" by the government of the commune on the property seized from the rich. Barere had openly declared in an address that "terror was the order of the day." The convention passed a decree (Sept. 17) against all those persons whom it defined as suspected," and a course of violence that resembled that of the old Roman proscriptions began against those held to be enemies of the new regime. The queen, Marie Antoinette (who had been a close prisoner since the death of Louis), and the imprisoned Girondists, were among the first victims.

After a brief form of trial in the first part of October, Marie Antoinette was guillotined on the 16th. The Girondists, after a brilliant defence, were executed Oct. 31. Several acts of the convention strongly marked the prevailing anarchy. By a decree of Oct. 5 the Gregorian calendar was done away with and a new revolutionary calendar introduced, which, by a retroactive provision, was supposed to have begun Sept. 22, 1792. Soon afterward the Christian religion was formally abolished, and the worship of Reason substituted, through the influence of Hebert, Anacharsis Clootz, and their followers -that party in the revolutionary commune which comprised the most violent extremists, and which was already known under the name of the Hebertists or enrages. But the "men of terror" now approached the first of those dissensions which preluded their fall. Robespierre, who was rapidly making his way toward nearly absolute power, saw that the acts of the Hebertists would weaken his influence with the populace, and for this and other reasons he desired to be rid of them.

Through his influence they were arrested and accused on various grounds, and 20 of them were executed March 24, 1794. Danton and his adherents, including Camille Desmoulins, who now advocated clemency, were the next opponents to be cleared from Robespierre's path; and though the conflict was in this case harder, his influence was sufficient to carry it through successfully. On March 31 the Danton party were arrested, the fear of Robespierre forced the convention to bring accusations against them, and on April 5 they were also brought to the guillotine, leaving Robespierre, with his companions St. Just and Couthon, in power. Under these leaders the order of affairs was again changed. Robespierre introduced still another religion, under the name of the worship of the Supreme Being, proclaiming a solemn fete at its introduction, which was little more than a farcical display of his own egotism. The rule of violence redoubled its horrors and cruelties; indeed, the period now following is that which is generally known especially as the reign of terror. The convention could not refuse the most extravagant commands of the powerful triumvirate; it was even obliged to assent to a proposal giving to the revolutionary tribunal the right to summon before it, without question, the deputies themselves.

The terrible executions par fournees began, before a reorganized tribunal that was to act more vigorously" than the former one. These executions were nothing less than promiscuous slaughters of all those against whom the most trifling accusation could be brought forward or invented; 60 to 70 persons, according to the most temperate statements, being daily brought to the guillotine. In Paris alone there are said by good authorities to have been 1,500 executions during the seven weeks through which this state of affairs endured. Such a course could not be long continued, and at length the reaction came. Opposition to Robespierre sprang up within the committee of public safety itself; and when on July 26 he demanded its renewed reorganization, the convention for the first time dared to refuse him. This step gave an opportunity to his enemies to turn against him; and in a single day his almost dictatorial power was gone. On July 27 (9th Thermidor) his arrest was ordered. Paris was now once more in uproar; a violent conflict ensued between the adherents of Robespierre and the troops of the convention, on whose side the sections and the national guards arrayed themselves. At first he was rescued by his party, but their success was only temporary.

Their opponents won in the end a complete victory, and on July 28 Robespierre and a great number of the leaders of the terror were guillotined on the same soot where their victims had suffered. With this act of justice an end may be said to have been put to the reign of the proletariat and the worst classes of the Paris population; and the more intelligent citizens began to regain that share of influence of which they had been so long deprived. On Nov. 12 the Jacobin club was closed. The more moderate deputies of the convention, who had fled or been banished, gradually reappeared in Paris. Although insurrections, caused partly by the prevailing want and suffering, partly by intrigues of the former leaders of the mob, broke out from time to time (especially on April 1 and May 20, 1795), they were put down, after sharp conflicts, in one of which (May 20) the convention was driven from its hall for a time. Under the influence of the more moderate opinions that now again gained the upper hand in the convention, a new constitution was formed. This was"the constitution of the year III.," bearing throughout the traces of the return of an intelligent and responsible class to the conduct of public affairs.