Robespierre's Counterattack

This series of blows seemed to have driven Robespierre mad. In protest against the Committee of Public Safety's disobedience, he Committee of Public Safety illness and stopped attending its meetings. Meanwhile, his key supporter, Saint-Just, was once again sent to the north to oversee the army due to the Anti-French Alliance's growing forces and the looming threat of attacking France. Thus, within the Committee of Public Safety, only Couthon remained loyal to Robespierre. Many saw this as Robespierre going completely mad, and his demise was imminent.

However, those who truly understood Robespierre knew that this man would never yield easily. He was certainly plotting a terrible counterattack.

Robespierre was not ill. Everyone noticed that during the day, he would appear in various slums with a smile, chatting and laughing with the poor, asking about their lives and making small talk with them. In the evening, he would return to his attic, write some things, and then have letters sent to someone or receive people who secretly came to visit him.

Fouché should have kept a close eye on Robespierre, watching his every move. If he had, he would surely have noticed something amiss and seen through Robespierre's scheme. However, at this crucial moment, something went wrong in Fouché's home.

Fouché's only daughter, six years old, is sick, and it's likely pneumonia.

In this era, pneumonia is an extremely terrible killer, claiming far more lives than Robespierre's guillotine.

Regardless of the satire and criticism that later generations have leveled against Fouché the chameleon—for example, Zweig once described Fouché as "a man without blood, tears, or a heart"—even Zweig acknowledged that Fouché was a good husband to his wife and a good father to his children.

Fouché remained faithful to his wife throughout his life, even though she was just a poor, humble, plain, and short commoner. After he rose to prominence, many men of his status often had countless mistresses. They would even exchange mistresses with each other, like Paul Barras later. But Fouché held a high position for a long time, never did such things.

Fouché also carefully shielded his children from the political storms, preventing them from being touched. He was sullen and imposing in public, and when at work, you would never see a smile on Fouché face. A single glance or gesture from him could terrify countless people, keeping them awake at night trying to decipher the meaning behind his gaze.

However, even in the most dangerous and difficult moments, as soon as she returns home, her perpetually glacial poker face immediately melts away, and in an instant, she blossoms into the warmest smile in the world.

He would hold the children in his arms, rubbing his bearded face against their little cheeks to make them giggle from the tickling sensation; he would call them "little darlings" and "sweethearts," playing all sorts of childish games with them, and never tiring of it. He never mentioned anything about the outside world to his family at home. But the moment he stepped out of the house, he instantly transformed back into that sinister, ruthless, unpredictable, and terrifying secret police chief.

His daughter's illness troubled Fouché. His reason told him that he could not relax at this time; his knowledge told him that pneumonia was contagious and he should stay away from her; but his emotions and knowledge also told him that his daughter would not live much longer, and perhaps soon he would have to prepare a small coffin for her.

"Perhaps there won't be any drastic changes," Fouché told himself. He knew he was deceiving himself, but for the first and only time in his life, he tolerated this irrational behavior of his own.

Fouché delegated more of the relevant matters to others, squeezing out time to be with his daughter who would soon pass away. To avoid infection, he sent his wife and other children aside, caring for his daughter alone. However, his successors were not as capable as him, so Robespierre's actions failed to arouse their suspicion.

During this period, Robespierre met with many members of the Jacobin Club. He told them that if he fell from power, those forces previously oppressed by the Jacobin, along with the Feuillants, Brissotins, and even the Danton, would retaliate. At that time, would they still let those currently in the Jacobin Club off the hook?

"Blood has been shed, heads have been slain, hatred has taken root. Every one of you has blood on your hands. Do you really think you can change your allegiance now? If I fail, their fate will surely be repeated on you!"

These terrible words terrified the people. They trembled, knelt on the ground, wept, and confessed to Robespierre, cursing the serpent named Fouché, the one who had tempted them to sin, with the most venomous words.

A few days later, at another gathering of the Jacobin Club, former president Robespierre suddenly appeared. Then a member told everyone that he wanted to expose a venomous snake and hoped that everyone could see its true colors.

This venomous snake's name was naturally "Joseph Fouché." This man fabricated a whole host of baseless accusations against Fouché, including that Fouché held unprotected parties with a large group of men and women, that Fouché fathered a large number of illegitimate children, and the untold story of Fouché and his illegitimate daughter—without considering that even if Fouché had an illegitimate daughter, how old could that daughter be, given Fouché's age?

Before the astonished Fouché could even retort, Robespierre spoke up. He declared that it was a disgrace to the Fouché that such scum had infiltrated Jacobin Club, and he suggested that everyone immediately vote to expel this morally corrupt hypocrite and viper from the Jacobin Club.

The Jacobin Club immediately held a vote, and the result was that Robespierre's faction overwhelmingly expelled the current president, Joseph Fouché, from the club.

This was a devastating blow. The advantage Fouché had gained through his previous schemes was almost entirely lost in that instant. The guillotine, which had seemed so far away, now appeared to be drawing ever closer. Considering that Robespierre had beheaded Desmoulins 'Desmoulins wife the day before he had done so, and that Robespierre had been the witness at Desmoulins's wedding and the godfather of their daughter, Fouché dared not imagine what would happen to his wife and children if he were led to the guillotine.

After regaining control of the Jacobin Club, the committee members who had previously gained "opinions" upon seeing Robespierre's apparent loss of power went to visit Robespierre one by one, confessing their sins and begging for his forgiveness.

Some even went so far as to suggest that Robespierre, a man of unparalleled power and influence, should be elevated to the rank of Dictator (a non-permanent official in the Rome Republic, also known as the Dictator of the Dinosaurs. In times of national emergency, the Dictator of the Dinosaurs was nominated by the Senate and held supreme power, encompassing administrative, military, legislative, judicial, and educational authority), to ensure France democracy and freedom. Of course, Robespierre rejected this suggestion. However, at the time, Robespierre was practically a Dictator of the Dinosaurs.

Fouché has now returned to his old life, although his report had been approved by the "Committee of Public Safety" (at which time Robespierre was feigning illness). However, after being expelled from the Jacobin Club, his situation has become dangerous once again. He can no longer be at home with his dying daughter, who died of pneumonia while he was in hiding. Her father was not by her side when she was buried in her coffin.

Fouché had never truly hated anyone as much as he did now. Before and after him, he had chopped off countless heads, but for him, it was just routine; he harbored no hatred for those people. But now, he had the only true enemy of his life.

Robespierre did not cease his pursuit of the "traitors" because of his current victory. He was keenly aware of how many people hated him and knew that his foundation was unstable. He no longer trusted anyone, including those who knelt at his feet, weeping and confessing—whether from the Jacobin Club or the "Committee of Public Safety." He knew that if he revealed any weakness, these people would surely betray him again—once a traitor has been betrayed, one cannot expect him not to betray again!

Therefore, Robespierre needed a truly reliable base. At that moment, Robespierre felt that the only possible base for him was the Sans-culottes.

Robespierre thus gained control of the National Assembly, continuously passing more extreme laws that favored the Sans-culottes. He strictly controlled prices, even at the cost of disrupting the entire economy; some of these laws were even things that Hébert himself might not have been able to propose.

These laws, economically speaking, were often short-sighted and detrimental to the interests of all "decent people." Robespierre knew that his measures would only increase the hatred he garnered from those in the National Assembly and even the Jacobin Club. But these people were already unreliable; even if he tried to appease them, would they remain loyal? What he truly worried about was whether the Sans-culottes would genuinely trust him, and whether they had truly forgotten how he had beheaded Hébert and others representing the Sans-culottes.

"You have betrayed Robespierre once, and Robespierre will never trust you again. Otherwise, he wouldn't be trying to curry favor with those Sans-culottes. The reason he hasn't cut off your heads yet is because he's not sure Sans-culottes will really continue to stand by his side as before. But I tell you, people are forgetful, especially when they've been bribed. Once the Sans-culottes are on his side, you, and all of you, will surely follow in Danton's footsteps!" Fouché said to Congressman Paul Barras.

"But everyone is too afraid to do anything," Barras replied.

"Then let's find a way to make them even more terrified. This fear will eventually motivate people to take action," Fouché said in a low voice, a vicious, wolf-like smile spreading across his face. "Mr. Barras, do you have any truly reliable people on your hands, like Charlotte Corday?"

"You want to assassinate Robespierre?" Barras asked in horror.

"No, I don't want to use such a method. Even if it succeeds, the consequences are too unpredictable." Fouché shook his head. Corday's assassination of Marat did not prevent the Reign of Terror. In fact, in a sense, her actions added another martyr to the Jacobin and made Jacobins rule more secure.

"So what exactly do you want to do?" Barras asked.

"Find someone to assassinate Couthon. The assassination must be carried out in a crowded place, the operation must fail, and the person who fails must commit suicide," Fouché said.

Barras fell silent. After Fouché spoke those words, he naturally understood everything Fouché meant. The assassination attempt had failed, so it wouldn't trigger a violent reaction. However, the assassination had taken place in broad daylight, and if it failed, the assassin would immediately and decisively commit suicide. Such an event couldn't go uninvestigated. Once investigated, everyone from Sans-culottes to members of parliament would be on edge, and then many loopholes would be created.

At that moment, simply telling someone, "The Committee of General Security is investigating you, and you'll be on the next list of people to be arrested," would be enough to make many people risk their lives to fight Robespierre.

"You could try contacting Tallien; he might know someone like that," Barras said.

Tallien came from the lower classes; in terms of background, he was a sans- Sans-culottes. He was originally a member of the Hébert faction, and when Robespierre purged the Hébert faction, he was serving as a special envoy in the Bordeaux region.

After the murders of Hébert and others, he was recalled. Robespierre accused him of indiscriminate killings and embezzlement in Bordeaux and expelled him from the Jacobin Club. If nothing else changed, his next step would certainly have been the guillotine. But at this time, Fouché was elected president of the Jacobin Club, disrupting Robespierre's plans, and thus Tallien survived.

Before the revolution, Tallien had connections with some low-level criminal gangs, and as a confidant of Hébert, he could certainly find people loyal to Hébert who hated Robespierre and others. He was indeed the perfect person to ask for this kind of thing.