Biographies of distinguished scientific men. First seriesArago, F. (François)
History
Biographies of distinguished scientific men. First series
Arago, F. (François)
Scientists -- Biography
"Do you know the accused?" said the President to Bailly. "Oh! yes, I do
know her!" answered the witness, in a tone of emotion, and bowing
respectfully to Marie Antoinette. Bailly then protested with horror
against the odious imputations that the act of accusation had put into
the mouth of the young dauphin. From that moment Bailly was treated with
great harshness. He seemed to have lost in the eyes of the tribunal the
character of a witness, and to have become the accused. The turn that
the debates took would really authorize us to call the sitting in which
the queen was condemned, (in which she figured ostensibly as the only
one accused,) the trial of Marie Antoinette and of Bailly. What
signified, after all, this or that qualification of this monstrous
trial? in the judgment of any man of feeling, never did Bailly prove
himself more noble, more courageous, more worthy, than in this difficult
situation.
Bailly appeared again before the Revolutionary Tribunal, and this time
as the accused, the 10th of November 1793. The accusation bore chiefly
on the pretended participation of the Mayor of Paris in the escape of
Louis XVI. and his family, and in the catastrophe that occurred in the
Champ de Mars.
If any thing in the world appeared evident, even in 1793, even before
the detailed revelations of the persons who took a more or less direct
part in the event, it is, that Bailly did not facilitate the departure
of the royal family; it is that, in proportion to the suspicions that
reached him, he did all that was in his power to prevent their
departure; it is, that the President of the sitting of the Jeu de Paume
had not, and could never have had in any case, an intention of going to
join the fugitive family in a strange country; it is that, finally, any
act emanating from a public authority in which such expressions as the
following could be found: "The deep wickedness of Bailly.... Bailly
thirsted for the people's blood!" must have excited the disgust and
indignation of good men, whatever might be their political opinions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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