On the 7th November the Convention had decreed, upon the report of the Mailhe (Deputy of the Haute-Garonne) that Louis XVI. could be tried and that the Convention should try him. The same day Robespierre demanded that the king should without further delay be pronounced a traitor to his country, a criminal towards humanity, and that he should be sentenced to death to set a good example to the world. On December 4th it was decreed that whoever should attempt to reinstate royalty in France, or any other power which might assail the supremacy of the people, should suffer the penalty of death. On December 6th a decree was issued nominating a Commission of twenty-one members, with instructions to accelerate the examination and trial of Louis XVI. On December 11, Louis XVI. appeared before the Convention. On the 25th he made his will. On the 15th January the nominal appeal turned upon these two queries: 1. _Was Louis guilty of conspiracy against liberty and of an attempt against the safety of the State?_--_YES or NO._ Out of 719 members present, 683 voted in the affirmative. 2. _Should the sentence to be passed upon Louis be submitted to the sanction of the people in their primary assemblies?_--_YES or No._ Out of 749 members present, 424 refused an appeal to the people. A third question was put; vital, supreme, final.--_What penalty had Louis incurred?_ Three hundred and eighty-seven votes out of seven hundred and thirteen replied: _The penalty of death._ Finally they proceeded to promulgate a fourth nominal appeal, couched in these terms: _Should the execution of the sentence on Louis Capet be reprieved?_--_YES or NO._ Three hundred and eighty votes were against reprieve. Three hundred and ten for it. There could not then be any reprieve. On January 20th the sentence was declared to Louis XVI. On the 21st January at ten o'clock Louis XVI. was executed. The Convention created ten armies to meet the outburst of indignation that rose throughout the whole of Europe: the Army of the North and of the Ardennes, commanded by General Custine; the Army of the Moselle, commanded by Houchard; the Army of the Rhine, commanded by Alexandre Beauharnais; the Army of the Alps, commanded by Kellermann; the Army of Italy, commanded by Brunet; the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees, commanded by Defiers; the Army of the Western Pyrenees, commanded by Dubousquet; the Army of the Coastline of Rochelle, commanded by General Canclaux; the Army of the Shores of the Channel, commanded by Félix Wimpfen; the Army of the West, commanded by Westermann. At the same time, Representatives of the People were appointed in connection with each army, selected by the Convention, and invested with absolute powers. Three of the generals we have just named died on the scaffold: Custine, Houchard, and Alexandre Beauharnais. The Girondists, who had voted with the Jacobins at the king's trial, now split off from them.