face, with confidence and trust; but when the service was over, their fears were converted into joy, for Paul arose and declared the strange history of his acquaintance with them, and his desire to cast in his lot as a follower of the Lord Jesus. From that time he became an active member of the church de la Foi, and the pastor found in him one on whom he might rest with paternal confidence, and who became to him at last what Timothy was to the great apostle.

He proved himself to be gifted in speech, and his words of exhortation were often accompanied with great depth and power.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE ATHEIST'S DOOM.

Whatever delay may have occurred in the procedure against the prisoners of Paris was unavoidable from the nature of things. The work of the Extraordinary tribunal was only limited by the size and capacity of that institution, and the immense throng of political criminals was evidently too great a burden for a single court. It was a fearful pressure on Fouquier Tinville and his jury, who now found themselves the only outlet to so vast a concourse, and to give all possible expedition new efforts were put forth. A double jury was impanelled in order that human weakness might interpose no obstacle, and the Tribunal ran day and night.

Fouquier was now compelled, though with great reluctance, to employ a deputy. Earnest as he was in his devotion to the work, he could not but yield to the claims of human nature. He must eat and he must also sleep. But to avoid all unnecessary delay in this drain on his time, a couch was prepared in one of the chambers in the Palais de Justice, near to the Salle, and here the fervent advocate indulged in brief seasons of rest.

It was a source of satisfaction to him that the cause of justice did not slacken while he slumbered; there was no halting there from heavy eyes or weary limbs. On the other hand, from early dawn to evening, the work went on, and then candles were lighted, and fresh officials took their places, and in their hands the long hours of the night witnessed the zeal with which conspiracy was punished.

The course of procedure was in the following manner: The dock or prisoner box had been removed, and a broad platform built on the side of the Salle, capable of seating two hundred persons. The prisoners having taken their places, some individual was required to sit in the fautueil or front chair, as representative man of the occasion, the others being as it was supposed, tried through him. The charge of conspiracy was then read; the witnesses, who served by the season, then gave their testimony, and the jury without leaving their seats, returned the stereotyped verdict.

The president of the Tribunal then pronounced sentence, and the condemned moved down stairs to the Conciergerie, while a fresh supply marched on the platform and received the action of Fouquier and his jury. Yet with all this expedition it was very slow business indeed, when one considers that there were ten thousand prisoners in the Paris jails awaiting trial. This delay was the reason why Ardine's case was reached so slowly, for although Robespierre had sent in his name to Fouquier weeks previously, yet he still remained in the Luxembourg.

In the meantime Paris was electrified by the discovery of another grand conspiracy. A thrill of renewed delight permeated the masses who wanted a fresh sensation, and Robespierre's mouth-pieces in Club and Convention thundered forth their denunciations.

The sensation increased in depth and power as the report of new arrests went forth embracing the names of those who once had led the Revolution, and who were considered the essence of patriotism. Thus on the sixteenth of March, Fouquier informs the Committee of Public Safety that he has arrested Hébert and Mormoro, and their associates; and Couthon makes public announcement of the NEW CONSPIRACY to destroy Robespierre and elevate Hébert, to which Barrére makes the following pungent reply: "The Revolutionary Tribunal, the friend of the people and of the Revolution, will do justice to the CONSPIRATORS who are attempting our liberty."1

From these statements it will at once be seen that the plot which Ardine declined to share from motives of principle, had been penetrated by the spies of Robespierre, and was now to be crushed; and to show how Paris was thrilled by the event, it may be added that on the 18th of March, the Section du Pantheon proceeded in body to the Convention, and there "congratulated it on the energy with which it struck the new enemies of the Republic, and invited it to redouble its vigilance."

1 Moniteur for March, 1794.

The leaders in this abortive scheme were now in prison, and their trial was urged in precedence of all others. Fouquier was obliged to forego his duties to hundreds whose names were already on his list, in order to dispose of these important cases, and by dint of great industry they were reached in the space of ten days.

Thus the last hours of the ATHEISTS drew nigh. It was the twenty-fourth of March, and on the morrow they were to meet death after the brief delay of an hour at the Tribunal and the bitter mockery of a trial.1 By evening they had all arrived from different prisons at the Conciergerie. Here as the guards were doubled, and the gates were of great thickness, the prisoners instead of being chained, were allowed to be at liberty until the last hour. But it was a liberty which no one cared to enjoy, and here on the benches beneath the heavy arch of that dark vault, half lit by a few ill-fed lamps, sat the Atheist leaders, grim as tigers at bay.

Among the most prominent in that wretched gathering, there was Mormoro, once a leader in the Convention, and who so lately was jubilant in the triumph of Reason, and whose wife received worship as its Goddess amid the gaping thousands who filled Notre Dame. There was the lofty-minded but unfortunate Cloots,

1 The fact that Robespierre had this group condemned for conspiracy and not under the open charge of Atheism, shows that he had not fully matured his scheme of a new divinity, which, however was still in progress.