Insurrection of the departments against the 31st of May--Protracted reverses on the frontiers--Progress of the Vendéans--The _Montagnards_ decree the constitution of 1793, and immediately suspend it to maintain and strengthen the revolutionary government--_Levée en masse_; law against suspected persons--Victories of the _Montagnards_ in the interior, and on the frontiers--Death of the queen, of the twenty-two Girondists, etc.-- Committee of public safety; its power; its members--Republican calendar-- The conquerors of the 31st of May separate--The ultra-revolutionary faction of the commune, or the Hébertists, abolish the catholic religion, and establish the worship of Reason; its struggle with the committee of public safety; its defeat--The moderate faction of the _Montagnards_, or the Dantonists, wish to destroy the revolutionary dictatorship, and to establish the legal government; their fall--The committee of public safety remains alone, and triumphant. CHAPTER IX FROM THE DEATH OF DANTON, APRIL, 1794, TO THE 9TH THERMIDOR (27TH JULY, 1794) Increase of terror; its cause--System of the democrats; Saint-Just-- Robespierre's power--Festival of the Supreme Being--Couthon presents the law of the 22nd Prairial, which reorganizes the revolutionary tribunal; disturbances; debates; final obedience of the convention--The active members of the committee have a division--Robespierre, Saint-Just, and Couthon on one side; Billaud-Varennes, Collot-d'Herbois, Barrère, and the members of the committee of general safety on the other--Conduct of Robespierre--He absents himself from the committee, and rests on the Jacobins and the commune--On the 8th of Thermidor he demands the renewal of the committees; the motion is rejected--Sitting of the 9th Thermidor; Saint-Just denounces the committees; is interrupted by Tallien; Billaud- Varennes violently attacks Robespierre; general indignation of the convention against the triumvirate; they are arrested--The commune rises and liberates the prisoners--Peril and courage of the convention; it outlaws the insurgents--The sections declare for the convention--Defeat and execution of Robespierre. CHAPTER X FROM THE 9TH THERMIDOR TO THE 1ST PRAIRIAL, YEAR III. (20TH MAY, 1795). EPOCH OF THE RISE AND FALL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY