Original subtitles

HISTORY'S SECRETS

Danton To arms, Citizens!

Under Valmy's magnificent, restored windmill,

I'm going to tell you an amazing story,

that is both heroic and tragic,

about one of the French Revolution's most famous men:

Danton.

The Republic's armies won their first victory here.

3 years after Bastille Day,

Verdun had fallen,

the enemy was at the gates of Paris:

Danton, in red frock coat,

mounted the Assembly rostrum.

And in his great voice, the 6-foot-3 colossus

called for France to be bold.

A miracle occurred.

It seemed as if Danton had communicated his energy

to the French soldiers, who won their first battle here.

Long live the nation! Long live France!

Danton was the conquering revolutionary.

Yet he was also a moderate,

anxious, as he said, "to spare the blood of men".

Danton loved life and its pleasures.

He was deeply in love with his 2 wives:

Gabrielle and Louise.

Danton may have personified the power of the Revolution,

but did this giant have a dark side?

He witnessed the great moments:

Bastille Day,

the Parisians' attack on Versailles Palace,

the fall of the monarchy

on 10 August 1792.

He led a nation in danger,

he galvanised crowds.

The birth of patriotism:

he was 1 of its creators.

But did this lover of life

have two faces?

Of course he took bribes.

He himself said:

the Ancien Régime made aristocrats rich,

revolution will make patriots rich.

Did he buy the victory at Valmy

with the crown jewels

stolen in the Royal Treasury robbery?

During the Revolution,

he was devastated by the death of his wife, Gabrielle.

One night, in a moment of madness,

he dug up her corpse.

He took hold of her corpse and kissed it on the mouth!

To defend the Revolution,

he created the Revolutionary Tribunal:

it administered swift justice.

He uttered the famous words:

"Let us be terrible to stop the people from being so."

Thousands of suspects

became acquainted with a new instrument of death:

the guillotine.

Guillotin said:

"It will chop your head off quickly and painlessly."

Why was Danton accused of betraying the Revolution

when he was one of its instigators?

The Terror was a desperate time

during which the new regime was ruthless

towards its enemies.

The Terror

was symbolised by the Conciergerie,

the prison in Paris' ancient Palais de la Cité.

This palace, home of French kings for many years,

was turned into a courthouse and prison

at the end of the 14th century.

It owes its name to its steward at the time,

called "the concierge".

They set up

a series of cells

in this guard room.

Every male or female suspect

was imprisoned here.

They'd wait here for days, even weeks

before appearing before the Tribunal

that was reached via these stairs.

Danton himself stayed here

before being executed on 5 April 1794

with his friends,

Desmoulins and d'Églantine.

How did it come to pass that

this extraordinary era

created a politician as great as Danton,

only to end up crushing him?

For Danton was a force of nature.

When he was just a child,

he survived an attack by a bull trying to gore him.

Danton looked the part.

When he was born, he was a big baby

as you can imagine.

His poor mother

certainly didn't have enough breastmilk for him.

So, the tradition was

to place large babies under a cow's udder.

And while he was sucking milk from his four-legged wet nurse,

a bull, presumably jealous,

tried to push him away, and cut his top lip

with a horn.

He was scarred for life.

This happened at Arcis-sur-Aube,

where Danton was born on 26 October 1759

into a family of farmers and magistrates.

The house of Arcis' darling child no longer exists.

His statue remains, facing into the threatening storm,

with the lofty attitude of a man calling for us

to be bold.

To gain a firmer understanding of Danton,

we need to go across France

to a seaside resort near Biarritz.

This is a tricorn.

The hat Danton wore during the Revolution.

You'd wear it like this. See?

Want to try?

This is Christian Arnoux,

a 7th-generation descendant of Georges Danton.

Strangely, the great revolutionary

has a poor reputation

within his own family.

At a wedding,

several cousins said to me:

"Why talk about that commie?

"You know we don't talk about him!"

We'd mostly talk about Mme de Pompadour,

a distant cousin.

Our family looked up to her.

We never mentioned Danton.

Christian Arnoux confirms the bull incident.

For good measure,

he adds a second bull to the story.

7 years later, maybe the same resentful bull

ran at him and gored his face again.

Like a painter finishing off his portrait,

nature marked him with awful little spots.

It was a common disease. It could be mild or serious.

He had a serious case of it.

His face was pockmarked all over

by that horrible disease.

And that completed the picture

of an astonishing-looking face.

In 1780, he got his 1st job in Paris

as a clerk, thanks to his father,

a prosecutor.

Back then, the Bastille fortress

was still standing.

Not for long.

He moved to Cordeliers,

a district of booksellers, journalists and printers.

Although Parisians

had seen big men, his size turned heads.

He was huge, like a rugby prop.

He wasn't far off 6 foot 3.

He had a huge forehead, a striking gaze,

a flat nose and thick lips.

Bushy eyebrows,

prominent eyebrow arches,

small, deep-set eyes.

As well as looking impressive,

he was a bon vivant,

a lover of life's pleasures.

He was always jolly.

He could drink, he had a strong constitution.

Powerful.

He always smiled, he was lively.

People wanted to be his friend.

Danton made friends at the Café Procope,

a popular haunt

of Enlightenment writers like Voltaire.

In the 1780s,

Danton met a new generation of lawyers here,

who would soon spearhead the Revolution.

When Danton came here,

he'd meet people like Marat.

Marat was a dangerous guy!

Be wary of this character:

Marat was a journalist and pamphleteer

who anticipated the Revolution.

You had to be careful about what you said to Marat.

It might appear in his paper.

Then you could be in trouble.

Camille Desmoulins

would have been there: a joyful, radiant, bright character,

a lover of life too, of course.

He was a great journalist.

He and Danton made an awesome partnership.

And then, suddenly, in 1789,

Robespierre appears on the scene, a UFO,

fresh from Arras, dressed to the nines,

cold expression.

He was the total opposite of Danton.

He was stunned: he found Robespierre intelligent,

brilliant.

But did he love life like Danton?

I think not.

Danton quickly noticed this...

He told his friends:

"We had a glass of claret,

"he had a glass of milk."

These 3 characters, Marat, Danton and Robespierre,

would revolutionise France,

live in the same area and die a few months apart.

At the age of 28, near St-Germain-l'Auxerrois Church,

Danton met the girl who was to become his first wife:

Gabrielle Charpentier,

whose father ran Café Le Parnasse.

All we know about her

is that she was beautiful, but a little dumpy.

The marriage seems to have been satisfactory

despite the husband's frequent infidelities.

A great love story began.

Danton was in love with Gabrielle

and Gabrielle was in love with the huge Danton.

Suddenly, Paris was on fire.

The explosion that occurred on 14 July 1789

was predictable.

In spring, to solve the financial crisis,

King Louis XVI summoned France's Estates-General.

Louis refused the bourgeoisie's demand

for a constitution.

Go and tell those who sent you

that we are here by the will of the people

and we will only leave at bayonet point!

The deadlock continued for 2 months.

Finally, on 9 July, the king yielded

and agreed to share power with the Assembly.

But only for appearances' sake.

A mercenary army summoned by Louis

surrounded Paris.

On 12 July, tensions were ignited:

Louis sacked a minister, Necker, for being liberal.

On 13 July, a pro-Necker demonstration

was brutally suppressed at Tuileries.

On the 14th,

rioters stormed the Bastille,

beheaded its governor and paraded his head on a pike.

The first of many beheadings.

But where was Danton that day?

We don't know.

We know he was in the Cordeliers district on the 13th:

he got onto a table

and launched a fervent call to arms.

Will we let tyranny

triumph over liberty?

No!

Danton was never around on the big days,

starting with 14 July 1789.

And he wasn't the only one.

None of the key players

ever took part in a riot or popular insurrection.

He was a tribune. He could talk to a crowd,

he knew how to harangue and excite a crowd.

Once the crowd went on the attack,

he stayed back.

He fought solely with his voice, with words.

Cordeliers' Convent is near the Odéon theatre.

On 15 July, Danton founded a debating club

for Paris' ultra-revolutionaries in the Cordeliers' refectory,

the Cordeliers Club,

where Danton gained his reputation as an unparalleled orator.

A huge, strong guy with an enormous pair of lungs on him.

When he addressed a crowd,

it was like a rumble of thunder.

It made the beams here tremble.

He stood here with one hand on his hip,

firm and upright.

That was the classic tribune's pose.

The other hand would cut through the air like a sabre.

The Cordeliers stood here, around him.

When they heard Danton's voice,

they felt they could hear

the very heart of the Revolution beating.

He was a visionary.

And an orator who sees

can paint pictures,

lead people to the unknown destination

that he describes.

It was primarily the power of Danton's vision that made him

an orator.

His eloquence was masterful.

It wasn't scholarly or complicated eloquence.

He used magnificent, powerful, killer phrases.

He was an orator who embodied what he said.

He was very theatrical.

He was physical.

Mme Roland said: "His face was bestial,

"as were his poses."

Even today, Danton is the archetypal tribune.

Yet, despite his impetuosity,

he often experienced deep depressions.

The action man became glum.

The exalted one became apathetic.

I've never understood:

this giant of a man with a voice that could overcome anyone,

a veritable force of nature,

would run out of steam now and again.

He'd go off to Arcis for a rest. For 1, 2 or 3 months.

He'd come back.

He'd convince the committees again.

He was on top form again.

And then,

as if he were depressed, he'd go back to Arcis and unwind.

Danton's psychological mystery

intrigued his peers.

Today, we'd call Danton bipolar,

or a manic depressive.

I think he really enjoyed life.

And like many people who enjoy life,

he was a manic depressive.

His manic side loved revolution:

he had ideas, went from 1 thing to another.

He was frenetic.

But when he ran out of steam,

all of a sudden, he had periods of emptiness,

when he had to be alone, went to the country and recovered.

Then, once he'd recovered, he'd bounce back

and go on the attack again.

And he had to:

the situation with the king was strained again.

On 15 July,

he accepted the idea of a constitutional monarchy.

He even attached the tricolour cockade to his hat.

I, Viscount de Noailles,

propose that all the privileges and rights of the nobility

be abolished.

But, on 4 August,

when the MPs put an end to the feudal system,

Louis complained.

He only agreed to sign the decrees under duress.

Then an incident occurred

that relaunched the Revolution.

The incident occurred here

in the Royal Opera House

in Versailles Palace's north wing.

It was brand new.

It was opened in 1770 for the wedding

of the future Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.

It's 1 of Europe's most beautiful theatres.

Winches and pulleys were used to raise

the floor of the stalls

and turn the theatre, when necessary,

into a huge ballroom or function room.

The room was set up like this

on 1st October 1789

when Louis XVI gave a large banquet

in honour of the Flanders Regiment protecting the palace.

Imagine several tables generously set,

arranged on the stage.

When the king and queen appeared in their box,

everyone cheered them.

They felt ready to spill blood, to die for them.

Then, according to certain reports,

2 or 3 officers did something very foolish.

Energetically, they stamped on the tricolour cockade

that the king had agreed to wear after the events of 14 July.

We're inside the royal box. Look.

This golden grille enabled the king and queen

to watch the show anonymously

and remain incognito.

That day, we can totally imagine that

they opened the grille on seeing

the enthusiasm.

The queen showed herself and laughed at the gesture

while Louis XVI was more reserved.

How would this gesture be interpreted in Paris

once it was known,

and how would Parisians react?

Would orators like Danton

use this incident as an excuse

to demand the return of the royal family to Paris?

It was cause for alarm:

the zeal of the Flanders Regiment's officers

could restart a revolution that people thought had ended.

To the King! To the Queen!

To the King! To the Queen!

Long live the King! Long live the Queen!

Danton was outraged by the Flanders Regiment's behaviour.

With the Cordeliers,

he called for Parisians to march on Versailles.

March for honour too!

Danton's poster caused a huge stir in Paris.

It gripped everybody.

Indeed, it was time to go and demand bread from the king.

The idea was to bring the government,

the king and the Assembly back to Paris.

On 5 October, several thousand women armed with 2 cannons

headed for Versailles in the rain.

At 3pm, they finally arrived at the gates of the palace.

That evening,

Lafayette, the National Guard commander,

rushed in and restored calm.

Not for long.

The morning of 6 October...

You must go!

Quick!

Quick!

On 6 October, the rioters broke into the palace forecourt,

then overcame the gates and headed

towards the palace apartments,

specifically towards the queen's apartment on the left.

This way!

The rioters broke through the queen's gate

and entered this room, this hall,

climbed the queen's staircase here,

came to a landing higher up where they met a bodyguard

whom they killed,

and they tried to enter the queen's apartment.

Louis heard the rioters in the yard,

went to the window, opened the shutters,

saw the rioters in the yard

enter the queen's rooms. He realised

his wife was in danger.

Whereupon, he decided to go and fetch her.

So, he went along the "King's Passage"

that led to

the queen's apartments,

via utility rooms

leading directly to these stairs

that climb up to the queen's apartment,

just up here.

Louis XVI climbed the stairs,

entered his wife's bedroom

and realised she wasn't here.

Guards told him she'd gone out and he turned back.

Lafayette arrived and tried to sort things out.

The crowd was in the Marble Courtyard calling for the King.

He stepped onto the balcony. Rioters below shouted:

"Long live the King!"

Then, the crowd called for Marie-Antoinette.

She hesitated, worried.

Lafayette said: "You must go."

The queen stepped onto the balcony.

Lafayette made a gallant gesture.

He kissed the queen's hand.

Someone shouted: "To Paris!"

At that moment, the decision was taken to return to Paris,

although Louis had been told beforehand

that if he went, he'd be at risk.

He gave in.

And everyone headed off to Paris.

The procession took 7 hours to reach Paris!

They were flanked by the National Guard,

followed by an angry, screaming crowd

parading bodyguards' heads

on pikes next to the coach.

The Dantonists had won.

But once again, Danton was not there.

Remember 1 year ago!

Our women went to Versailles

to fetch the King!

Following this,

Danton became one of the Revolution's main leaders.

Rumour had it

he was accepting money from Louis

to be duplicitous.

Pure ill will or the truth?

Of course Danton took bribes.

Look at the facts.

He had a small fortune.

In 1787, before the Revolution, he had 5000 livres.

He paid 78,000 livres to be a lawyer

to the King's Council.

He borrowed.

Within 3 years, he'd paid the money back

and was leading a totally remarkable lifestyle

and buying properties.

With what money?

They said Danton was paid by the king

and the Duke of Orléans, who was after the throne.

He was paid, but in return for what?

Taking money doesn't mean you'll render the services

you're paid for.

The same thing was said about Mirabeau:

that he was paid, but not bought.

He continued to follow his own politics

and was paid for services he didn't render.

Danton did the same thing.

He thought that people despised him so much that he could be bought.

So he pretended to accept. It helped him

pay for his position as lawyer

for which he still owed money,

and pay for his Arcis home.

He mixed business with pleasure.

They wanted to give him money, why not take it?

While it made him rich,

the royal corruption policy was doomed to fail.

Despite appearances, neither the king nor the queen

wanted to share power with the Assembly.

They deliberately worsened the situation.

That was the wrong strategy.

The king did this before the Revolution.

He could've avoided revolution

if he'd made concessions.

Revolution meant failure.

The Revolution stemmed from counter-evolution:

preventing evolution.

The king refused to make concessions in time

and, of course, society hit a deadlock, became strained

and something had to give.

The last ties between king and people

were broken on 20 and 21 July 1791,

when the king and his family

fled Tuileries Palace where he was living.

He wanted to join supporters

waiting for him in Montmédy,

to organise resistance.

But his plan failed:

the convoy was caught just before the border.

Amid a chilling silence,

the royals were taken back to Tuileries.

For Danton, this was proof the king had betrayed the nation.

The monarchy

has never been hated as much

as when it betrayed France

and the nation.

It was when the king wanted to join the coalition

of nobles united against France,

French nobles waging war against France

relying on neighbouring crowns...

The king went to join them,

dressed as a commoner in his coach,

and was caught at Sainte-Menehould.

It was the monarchy's political betrayal

that united patriotism and democracy.

Despite Louis' pitiful return, the Assembly

hesitated over what to do.

We want a Republic!

Danton signed a petition for the king's suspension.

The petitioners wanted

the king's dismissal,

the abolition of the monarchy

and the establishment of the republic.

At that time, a republic was a new and dangerous idea.

Take aim!

So dangerous, the National Guard fired at demonstrators.

50 people died.

It was serious:

revolutionaries were firing at revolutionaries.

As usual, Danton wasn't at the Champ-de-Mars demonstration,

He didn't like to attend

these large demonstrations and gatherings.

And he fled to England.

He went to London and stayed a while.

He stayed for...

a few weeks.

6 weeks in all,

until there was an amnesty in Paris

for those who had demonstrated.

At the start of summer 1792,

foreign intervention made the situation more extreme.

The Prussians threatened Paris with reprisals

if the Revolution harmed the royal family

in any way.

Paris was threatened by enemies who had clearly stated that

they'd subject Paris

to military enforcement.

That means that

soldiers enter a city, the gates are closed

and those soldiers do as they please for several days.

This threat was unbearable for the French

and precipitated another day of uprising.

Even more so than 14 July 1789,

10 August 1792

was a decisive date in the Revolution.

On 10 August, Danton played a major role

when Paris' municipal authority

was overturned and replaced by a revolutionary Commune.

This commune is dissolved!

I protest!

Protest acknowledged!

Next day, at dawn,

thousands of Parisians called for the king to abdicate.

The king took refuge in the National Assembly.

Louis XVI was not a soldier king.

He left his Swiss Guard at the Tuileries,

thinking that if the Guard triumphed,

he'd be in the right place to take back control.

If the Guard lost, well, he was in the National Assembly

and wasn't responsible for what happened.

It's worth noting that all of Paris marched

on 10 August 1792.

100,000 people marched on the Tuileries.

To protect Louis:

only 2 National Guard companies,

a hundred nobles who were a waste of space

and the 900 Swiss Guards

who were literally destroyed on the spot:

seeing that his side was losing the battle,

Louis ordered the Swiss to drop their weapons

and retire to barracks.

He left them in the lurch.

By that evening,

the monarchy had fallen.

An executive committee was elected:

Danton held a major role.

After the monarchy's fall,

a temporary government was appointed

and Danton was appointed

Justice Minister

and government leader.

The Justice Minister became, so to speak, the Prime Minister.

There was no Prime Minister. It was a sort of committee.

The Justice Minister, in charge of determining

actual judicial procedure,

became the most powerful man

in a country that was developing

its first ever republican institutions.

Equality Liberty

In one day,

centuries of monarchy were wiped out.

France stepped into the unknown.

The king, relieved of duty,

was now a prisoner of the Revolution.

Louis XVI ousted.

The news spread around Europe fast.

A king whose dynasty had ruled France for 8 centuries

suddenly imprisoned like a thief.

How was this possible?

Here at the Carnavalet Museum,

we have some souvenirs

of the king's detention in Temple Prison,

an old keep built by the Templars.

Louis was taken there on 30 September.

He was joined by his family and sister,

Madame Élisabeth, in late October.

This bed was his sister's who, apparently, was so horrified

by her imprisonment

that she became physically unrecognisable.

To cope with the fear, they kept themselves busy.

They read, of course. This 220-volume bookcase

was provided for the king.

The queen could spend time spinning wool or flax

on this small wheel.

Here are the children's toys:

lotto cards and a billiard table.

In this display case,

they've kept touching souvenirs of the king's imprisonment.

The king's shaving equipment.

Next to it, a disturbing souvenir:

a page of the Dauphin's writing,

just like any young schoolchild's.

The Dauphin, Louis-Charles, was 7 years old.

This sextant here, look,

and this compass

prove that prison

had not extinguished the king's passion

for watchmaking, mechanics and geography.

They survived whilst they waited.

Waiting for what?

Louis didn't know. He was scared. More for his family than himself.

Who knew what tomorrow might bring?

The war that had just begun

was the first big test of the Revolution.

Alas, the French troops were poorly prepared

compared with the professional Prussian and Austrian armies.

But when the country was in danger, Danton showed his worth.

Since spring 1792, France had been at war

with Austria and Prussia.

But contrary to French hopes,

the war began badly.

The war began badly

in April 1792

with a series of military setbacks that turned into

outright defeat by summer 1792,

as the border was breached in several places.

Soon, Longwy and Verdun were captured.

No!

We will not leave Paris!

We will not hide in fear!

We will stay, fight and win!

On 2 September 1792, the National Assembly

was full of panic.

They were waiting for the Justice Minister.

Danton climbed onto the podium

and uttered the phrase we know well.

To defeat our enemy,

we must be bold, bolder still

and forever bold, to save France!

A great orator, he knew what to say.

He knew how to stir a crowd,

how to stir opinion.

If he'd had TV, he'd have been extraordinary.

He exclaimed:

"Everything's stirring, gearing up, burning to fight."

He used his own words and lived them.

He uttered them to volunteers

gathered at the Champ-de-Mars, leaving for the border.

Every man must fight

with every gun, spear or sword!

Patriotism was born:

a shared sentiment in a nation that had overlooked itself,

but decided to defend the choice

made by its people,

who decided, one day,

to get rid of their king, their oppressor.

This was a France we've seen

many times.

Like Georges Clemenceau's France in 1917-18.

His speeches were

like Danton's.

In our country,

it's a fact that,

just as we think everything's going to collapse,

- in 1792, everything could have collapsed -

it seems that a genius

appears from our nation

and carries it to safety.

During those crucial days,

high up in the Assembly's gallery,

one girl couldn't take her eyes off Danton.

It was Gabrielle, his wife.

She watched him proudly.

But she was thinking he was first in the firing line.

And if things went wrong,

he was now in charge, he was the head of the government.

The Assembly declared that the country was in danger.

Danton proposed a crucial reform in soldier recruitment.

His idea

was to arm everyone:

a first for Europe.

Armies were relatively small.

England, Germany and Austria had professional armies.

Here, everyone was called to arms.

It was called "mass conscription".

Henceforth, the nation would be called to arms.

Mass conscription means that the whole nation

engages in a war.

War is no longer limited, as it was in the Ancien Régime.

It becomes total war.

However,

this army of many, in rags,

brave soldiers lacking experience,

needed an extra advantage.

This appeared miraculously in April

in the fine city of Strasbourg.

For some days,

Strasbourg's mayor, Baron de Dietrich,

had been asking Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle

to compose a song

for the Bas-Rhin volunteers' training.

On 25 April 1792, at the mayor's home,

behind these very windows,

Rouget de Lisle performed his war song

for the first time.

The central character was Rouget de Lisle.

He was standing roughly where I am now.

Mayor Frédéric de Dietrich was in this armchair.

A harpsichord here.

This is what would've been heard.

Arise, children of the Fatherland

The day of glory has arrived

This is one of the oldest surviving recordings

and it gives a good idea of how La Marseillaise was sung.

The bloody banner is raised...

Isidore Pils' painting from 1849

shows an ecstatic Mayor de Dietrich watching De Lisle.

But how did he react in reality?

He wasn't so keen.

He wrote:

"It left us cold

"because it didn't sound like a march."

The mayor must've been very picky.

The song became

hugely popular when it left Strasbourg.

Adopted by Marseille's soldiers,

it was sung by all the Republican armies.

Soak our fields

It's a war song.

War songs are brutal songs.

It may be shocking, but it was a war song,

to galvanise troops on the attack

with bayonets fixed.

Some generals claimed the song was as effective

as several cannons.

Alas, at that moment,

Danton was involved in a tragedy.

In September,

as if the enemy's approach had made them mad,

sans-culottes stormed prisons

and massacred every prisoner they found.

They opened

the prisons. Not to free the prisoners,

but to massacre them.

They were about to send volunteers off to fight the Prussians

and stop the invasion.

Paris would be deserted with overcrowded jails:

many were arrested on 10 August.

1300 prisoners died in Paris:

Marie-Antoinette's close friend,

the Princesse de Lamballe,

was murdered in the most abominable fashion.

She walked out.

Once she'd got through the gate, they grabbed her,

laid her down and cut her head off with a knife.

Her body was cut up into little pieces.

Her pubic hair was turned into

a moustache for a sans-culotte.

A leg was put in a cannon.

They put her head on a pike, powdered it

and held it under the queen's prison windows,

saying:

"Give your friend a kiss!"

One of the most awful episodes

took place in Paris' Couvent des Carmes.

After the monarchy fell,

100 clerics were held there.

They'd refused to work for the Republic

and swear loyalty to the Constitution.

They wanted

to remain in the employ of the Pope.

So, at the start of September...

It was Sunday, 2 September 1792.

5pm.

The stifling heat of summer

and the stifling heat of terror were hanging over Paris.

We know the Prussians were only a few kilometres from Paris.

We know fear and terror overwhelmed Paris.

The 120 priests and 3 bishops in this church,

living here as refugees and captives,

could feel this terror overwhelming Paris.

This tension rose even more

when each one was asked to proceed to the sacristy.

The priests were asked to come forward in pairs

by Maillard, the head of the National Guard.

The priests passed through this former sacristy

that was now the National Guard's room.

They were pushed roughly into the convent's cloister.

They got to this room and came across

a makeshift court.

Behind a wooden table here

sat 2 National Guard members: one, the court clerk,

the other, the judge.

When his name was called, each priest had to state

if he was for or against the Civil Constitution.

Those who agreed to sign were free to leave.

They went off to freedom and the city.

Those who refused to sign, ie. the majority of them,

went down these steps to the garden.

They had scarcely got through this doorway

when the national guards posted on either side

grabbed them and skewered them

with pikes, shouting: "Long live the nation!"

Right after,

the 120 corpses were thrown over the steps

and accumulated in the garden.

Another horrible detail:

the killers leant their bloody sabres against this wall.

The marks are still there.

Today, the victims' remains lie in the church's crypt.

People argue over whether Danton was responsible.

Was he informed of these massacres?

Not only did he know,

he let it happen.

He justified it: "It was necessary. Vox populi, vox Dei.

"We must obey the will of the people."

Do what?

You think I control these people?

A wise man knows when he's powerless.

They couldn't stop what they'd unleashed.

That's what happened in France in 1792.

But look at what's happened

in any "revolution" in recent years:

similar things have happened.

Whilst all seemed lost,

unexpected victory put a halt to the foreign invasion.

On that day,

30,000 French troops

commanded by Generals Kellermann and Dumouriez

linked up at the foot of this hillock.

Many of them were young and inexperienced.

They faced the Duke of Brunswick's 34,000 Prussians.

One of the world's best armies.

The battle of Valmy began.

20 September 1792:

it was a gloomy morning, like today.

General Kellermann took advantage of the morning fog

and placed his 30,000 men on the hills above Valmy village

at the foot of the windmill.

Fire!

Cannons roared.

The French had 150 artillery guns,

the Prussians, 200.

20,000 cannonballs were fired.

Brunswick tried to send his infantry forward.

He sent his infantry up the hill.

No use. The French were highly motivated.

They were well-armed, organised.

First attack repelled.

Brunswick tried second and third attacks.

No use.

By evening, the battle seemed lost.

Brunswick had to negotiate with General Dumouriez.

Long live the nation! Long live France!

But critics broadcast a less glowing version of the battle.

They thought the victory was fixed,

that it was bought.

By whom?

By Danton.

The whole thing began with a robbery

inside l'Hôtel de la Marine, Navy Headquarters,

in Place de la Concorde.

Back then,

l'Hôtel de la Marine was the Royal Treasury.

The Crown jewels were there,

some of the world's finest diamonds.

To prove this,

François Fargès, a professor of mineralogy,

is carefully bringing some along

in a small black box.

In this box, we have

some replicas

of the Crown's diamonds

in the Treasury here in 1792.

The cream of this extraordinary collection

were 2 exceptional diamonds:

the 140-carat Regent Diamond

and Louis XIV's French Blue, 69 carats.

And a fine collection of coloured diamonds:

the Queen's diamond, pale blue,

the Peach Flower diamond

which is pale pink and of the highest quality.

The orange-pink Hortensia diamond.

Another incredible collection of jewels was used

by the king and queen:

pearl necklaces, a vast array of different objects,

epaulettes, Order of St-Esprit badges.

The total estimated value in 1792:

24 million livres.

In today's money, that would mean

considerably more than 1 billion euros.

The Regent Diamond

and French Blue account for half of that.

The robbery occurred shortly before Valmy.

It was at night

and was highly adventurous.

On the evening of 11 September 1792,

a gang of crooks well known to the law

climbed over the balustrade and came to this first window.

They cut a hole in the pane.

They cut a hole in the shutter with a saw.

They lifted the catch,

got to the 2nd window.

They cut the 2nd pane with a diamond,

lifted the catch and the iron bar just behind.

And they were in this amazing room

with all the monarchy's jewels.

They took Louis XV's Golden Fleece insignia,

official epaulettes, the St-Esprit badges.

They left the way they came.

The guards didn't notice a thing.

So, they thought they'd return the following night.

They returned on Wednesday.

They set upon a large reinforced cabinet here,

where all the big diamonds were kept

with other diamonds:

the Sancy, Regent, Mazarins, Peach Flower...

284 diamonds in 9 different boxes.

They took them and celebrated:

they danced, drank, messed about.

They left the way they came.

The 3rd night,

all of Paris' nastiest scoundrels came for the rest.

They had an argument below the Treasury.

That alerted guards.

They were able to arrest the first thieves.

And so the robbery ended.

It was the robbery of the millennium.

An astonishing story indeed.

Why was Danton suspected?

As Justice Minister,

he also had an office in the Royal Treasury.

Maybe he engineered the robbery

to buy victory at Valmy

via a deal with Brunswick,

the Prussian commander.

A bit of a coincidence:

the Crown jewels were stolen 4 days earlier.

The Duke of Brunswick turned up with a professional army.

He faced a bunch of beggars.

Also, Danton was a very good negotiator,

especially with his wallet open.

I think he bribed Brunswick,

who was glad to be rid of that battle.

It's one theory.

It's never been formally proved.

But if it wasn't him, it was very like him.

The other theory is that Kellerman

and Brunswick had an agreement.

They were freemasons and belonged to the same obedience.

This theory seems more plausible,

although it's unlikely.

Most likely, Brunswick

was taking his time to get to Paris

and, in reality,

did not intend to reach Paris,

and chose to turn back

when he saw the French troops rushing towards him.

In any event,

the robbery was quickly forgotten

as the Assembly now faced a serious issue:

what to do with the king?

The death penalty was abolished in 1981 in France,

so the guillotine is a thing of the past, fortunately.

This one is on display at MuCEM,

Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations,

in Marseille. It's here to represent

the birth of citizenship and the rights of man.

We name it after its promoter,

Dr Guillotin, but it had other names in the past:

"National Razor", "Widow", "Wee Cat-flap",

"Sure-fire Slicer", "Aristos' Dormer Window", "Peephole".

The concept is simple.

This is a moveable board:

the convict was laid upon it and tied down.

The unfortunate's head was held in this lunette.

Then, you operated the guillotine using this handle.

The blade dropped in a split second between these 2 uprights.

There was a compartment that the head dropped into

and a wicker basket to collect the body.

You'd raise the blade with this rope

and move onto the next person.

Surprisingly, this machine that fills us with dread

was designed by a doctor and surgeon

whose only aim was to kill without causing suffering.

Guillotin said:

"My machine will chop your head off quickly and painlessly."

Killing kindly: what horrifying progress.

In 1790, in a small courtyard

not far from Danton's apartment,

medical students tested a first version

of the guillotine on some sheep.

Guillotin was a humanist.

He wanted 2 things: to make the death penalty impartial,

by administering it to everyone in the same way,

and he wanted it to be kind, quick.

The Ancien Régime

had at least 24 types of execution.

Hanging, drawing and quartering,

the stake, not so very long before Louis XVI.

It was atrocious.

The worst of all, strongly criticised by Voltaire,

was the wheel.

They put a wheel on a scaffold, horizontally.

The condemned man was bound to the wheel

and the executioner wielded a heavy metal bar.

He would beat him violently.

He crushed him. He smashed his bones and joints.

This ordeal lasted hours,

and the victim screamed.

As for the blade's famous shape,

1 rumour has it that Louis XVI himself developed it.

For a better cut,

instead of being crescent-shaped,

the blade should be

triangular...

and slanted.

It's a brilliant myth that came from Alexandre Dumas.

Louis XVI loved mechanics, surgery,

but didn't invent the diagonal blade. Dr Louis did:

he was the dean of the Faculty of Surgery,

inventor of dissecting knives.

He was asked to do a technical report:

he recommended this shape

rather than the doloire shape, i.e. an axe shape,

which crushed the neck, but wasn't the best slicer.

Making the blade slanted was a brilliant idea.

Dr Louis was the real designer.

The guillotine's first nicknames were "Louison" and "Louisette"

in honour of Dr Louis.

Law Penal Code

On 3 June 1791,

The Assembly decided that everyone sentenced to death would be beheaded.

The guillotine was about to hit the big stage.

Meanwhile, after the monarchy's fall,

a new assembly was elected:

the National Convention, at Tuileries.

It was dominated by a group of MPs called the Girondins.

The Convention's members

were almost all Republicans.

But they were very divided.

On the right was the Gironde,

the left was the Montagne,

and the centre was the Marais, or Plain.

There was a running battle between the Convention's 2 major parties,

the more moderate Gironde and the Montagne,

radical in its vision and definition of the Republic.

1 of the Girondins,

this pretty lady, whetted Danton's appetite:

Madame Roland,

wife of the Minister of the Interior.

She was a real stunner.

She knew how to show off her cleavage.

Most women did, back then, but her breasts deserved attention.

She was pretty as a picture.

Danton often visited Madame Roland's salon.

Did Danton attempt to pay court to her?

It's possible.

Getting closer to her husband was certainly a political aim:

Madame Roland exerted great influence over her husband

whom Danton didn't get on with.

Politically speaking, it's possible.

Was there a love affair or an attempt at one?

I'm leaving Danton.

Strange man.

So many problems. He can't look at a woman without jumping on her.

He referred to Madame Roland as,

pardon the expression, "a chaste slut".

Which shows that he might have attempted

to seduce her.

I'm sure it was the opposite:

she was attracted to Danton.

The young woman had married old Roland

who was completely impotent in the bedroom department.

So, she wanted fresh meat, a powerful man.

But Danton had bigger fish to fry

and refused her advances.

There are texts written by Madame Roland

showing how disgusting she found Danton.

She was physically repulsed

by this big fellow, who was totally hideous.

She found him terribly repulsive and physically hated him.

Moreover,

she must've known certain things.

Minister Roland had access

to the king's secret cupboard

that contained all the evidence of the king's duplicity

and Danton's and other politicians' propensity for bribery.

Roland hid nothing from his wife: she knew what Danton was like.

But she didn't realise

that, behind the corrupt man, lay a great statesman.

After Valmy, Danton was seen as the nation's saviour

and he thought it might be time to calm the Revolution's excesses.

After Valmy,

Danton thought France was no longer at risk.

He then realised how chaotic things were

and feared the potential consequences.

At that point, perhaps, he decided to resume

the scheme that had originally been Mirabeau's:

to end the Revolution.

I think that his goal was

to reunify the Republican forces.

He wanted to consolidate the Republic.

Creating and consolidating it was his task.

Saint-Just, Robespierre's ally, wanted to take revolution further.

At the Convention, he demanded the king's death.

A king must rule...

or die.

Danton thought killing the king would be a serious mistake.

Now that the king was no longer in power,

Danton first wanted to banish him, send him away.

They say he was approached by royalist envoys

who gave him a lot of money

either to buy the MPs' vote during the trial,

or to pay people to help the royal family escape.

He was 2 million short.

Danton reckoned he needed another 2 million livres.

It was England that refused to pay the money at that point.

The king's trial began on 10 December 1792

in the National Convention's grand hall.

It would last 2 weeks.

Whoever hesitates to condemn a tyrant is no Republican!

On 15 January 1793, the Assembly pronounced the verdict.

Death.

I vote for death.

Death!

Death, within 24 hours.

- Death. - Death.

Danton hadn't got the money to save the king.

He was called to vote.

Death.

The opportunist fell into line.

He saw that most people wanted the king's death,

so he voted for it as well. He was scared, too.

One thing:

Louis was sentenced to death by a majority of 1 vote.

Historians recounted the votes and noticed, firstly, that

1 vote was reversed, i.e. a mistake was made,

and that an MP called Robert,

who'd drafted the Champ-de-Mars petition,

did not yet have French citizenship.

He was from Belgium.

Therefore, the king was the subject of a miscarriage of justice.

On 21 January 1793, Louis XVI was driven to the scaffold.

80,000 national guards were there

to maintain order along the way.

At 10.20am, they arrived

at what is now Place de la Concorde.

The scaffold stood near where the obelisk is,

a bit to the right facing the Champs-Élysées.

At 10.20, the king got out of the carriage.

He refused to be undressed.

He removed his frock coat himself.

One of the executioner's helpers was called Charlemagne:

a little nod to history. That man tied the king's hands.

When you behead someone, whether a king or a peasant,

you can't do it if his hands aren't tied.

Then, the executioner's assistants

talked to the king's confessor, who said to him:

"Sire, in this final transgression, I see a likeness to the God

"who is about to receive you."

For the abbot, Louis XVI's ordeal was comparable to Christ's.

He climbed onto the platform.

He tried to address

the crowd.

I die innocent of the crimes I am accused of.

I forgive my executioners.

This little speech was drowned out by the drum rolls

to prevent people from hearing it.

At 10.23, Louis was beheaded.

Danton didn't want to see the execution.

He went on a mission to Belgium.

When he returned, he had to deal with a personal tragedy.

His wife had died in childbirth and been buried

3 days before.

Georges...

Where's Gabrielle?

She died a death that was quite common back then:

maternal-infant mortality,

i.e. postpartum, just after giving birth.

It was very common back then.

You were lucky if you could have a vaginal delivery

and both mother and baby were OK.

Danton was hurt.

He visited his friend, Deseine the sculptor, and said:

"Listen, you have to do her portrait for me.

"Do her bust." And Deseine said:

"How? I don't have a model." "I'll find you a model!"

Danton and Deseine went and dug up Gabrielle.

Danton took hold of her corpse

and kissed the lips of the woman he'd loved so much.

A 3-day-old corpse isn't pretty.

And they didn't have the preservatives or funeral care

that we have today.

Besides, I'm not even sure she was put in a coffin.

Generally, they were put in a sheet and straight in the ground

with a tombstone, if they were rich. That's all.

There weren't the same rites as today.

This was an episode of macabre madness.

You get the impression that Danton,

who was often on the edge of madness,

went over the edge in this case.

Mind you, in the 18th century,

people were, unlike us,

used to being around corpses and living with them for a few days.

I won't say this was common practice,

but it wasn't that suprising or scandalous.

He told Deseine: "Make a cast."

And he moulded the bust of Madame Danton in the cemetery.

From that mask,

we have the authentic bust of Madame Danton

with her real-life characteristics,

i.e. those of a frank, open and kind woman.

Through this woman, we can sense

all the love that Danton felt for her

and that they were a very close couple for many years.

A few days later,

Danton received condolences from Robespierre

who had become 1 of the Convention's most influential members in 1793.

Robespierre learned that Danton had lost his wife.

He knew her,

since she was part of that small political world.

Well, Robespierre wrote Danton an incredibly emotional letter.

He told him he loved him, that he was thinking of him,

that he was sad for him, etc.

Was this complete hypocrisy

or were these Robespierre's real thoughts?

We'll never know.

Robespierre was considered to be very reserved.

A man who rarely gave in to emotion.

Was this a fit of humanity?

Er... yes...

A fit of humanity, yes.

While Danton foundered in grief,

The Revolution got worse.

Marat, the leader

of the ultra-left and sans-culottes,

proposed they increase the crackdown.

Cut off 100,000 heads!

The horror will paralyse our enemies!

At the Girondins' suggestion,

Danton agreed to arrest Marat.

It was pointless. He was acquitted and released.

On the battlefield, things were just as confused.

After Louis' death,

all of Europe bore arms against France.

In France, the Vendée rose up against the Republic.

The danger was such that Danton

called for a special jurisdiction based at the Palais de Justice:

the Revolutionary Tribunal.

Danton proposed they create an institution to act

in place of the people,

and he uttered the famous words:

"Let us be terrible to stop the people from being so."

This room was turned into the Revolutionary Tribunal.

They removed what gave it its charm,

the golden ceilings here before the Revolution,

and they replaced the decor here with revolutionary decor,

displayed the Declaration of the Rights of Man

and the Constitution.

5 professional magistrates sat here,

wearing a feather and a black gown.

The public prosecutor, Fouquier-Tinville,

stood here, watchful, ready to enliven discussions.

He'd regularly turn towards the accused,

over here on a large platform.

Imagine Marie-Antoinette, Charlotte Corday, here.

All the accused were here. No matter how many,

they were assigned to this platform

and came to answer the prosecutor's questions here.

On the other side was another raised platform,

where the people's jury sat:

12 citizens who had been chosen to embody public justice.

The crowd was there.

The crowd was here, separated from the court

by a wooden barrier,

on what was traditionally called the "tiled floor",

as opposed to the parquet here.

They couldn't go beyond this point.

Unlike a normal trial where you were asked to be quiet, tactful,

not to nod or shake your head, cheer, applaud, etc.,

the crowd here were allowed to shout: "Death to traitors!"

It was emergency justice, no mystery about it.

You were brought here and sentenced within 24 hours.

The cart took you to the Conciergerie

and you were brought here. Once sentenced, you couldn't appeal.

You were executed within 24 hours.

Prisoners waiting to be sentenced by the Revolutionary Tribunal

spent their days in this courtyard in the Conciergerie prison.

When evening came, they went back to their cells.

One part of the courtyard is separate.

It was called the "Yard of the 12" and could take up to 12 people.

The condemned were kept here

while they waited to be taken to the scaffold.

Imagine the poignant scenes between prisoners in the courtyard

who witnessed close friends going to their deaths.

We're now in the prisoners' corridor.

In the clerk's office, here,

an official wrote down the prisoners' names

and reason for conviction.

Many discovered the reasons for their arrest here.

Next door, we have the guardroom.

The guard saw to prison hygiene, security and food provision.

Some guards were accused of ill-treating prisoners

and ended up being guillotined too.

Now we come to a sinister room,

the "salle de la toilette", where prisoners

were prepared for execution.

The prisoner handed over his last possessions,

his hands were bound,

his neck hair was cut very short

and his shirt collar was cut out.

Now we'll visit a very special cell:

a reproduction of Marie-Antoinette's cell.

The real cell, just next door, was turned

into an expiatory chapel in the 19th century.

As you can see, the cell is split into 2 equal sections.

One was occupied by the queen, the other, by gendarmes.

They watched her constantly after a suspected escape attempt.

They put a screen in the middle

to give Marie-Antoinette a modicum of privacy.

Danton reckoned the queen shouldn't be killed.

As a pragmatist, he thought he could negotiate her release

with foreign powers. It was pointless

against stiff opposition from the Montagnards.

So, on 16 October 1793 at 11am,

after writing in her will that she forgave

her enemies for all the harm they had done her,

she left for the scaffold.

She wasn't allowed to go bareheaded. A bonnet hid her blonde hair.

The painter, David,

sketched her quickly as she passed by.

At midday, the convoy arrived at the square

where the guillotine stood.

Climbing onto the stage,

she inadvertently trod on the executioner's foot.

She said: "Forgive me, sir, I did not do it on purpose."

Those were her last words.

A minute later, her head fell.

All this blood sickened Danton. He said he'd had enough of men.

The Revolution, attacked from within and without,

had entered a terrible phase:

it was called the Terror, in hindsight.

The Terror.

A merciless crackdown, starting in summer 1793,

on anyone suspected of betraying the Revolution.

The Revolution was built

on fighting betrayal.

The French Crown represented betrayal.

So, any citizen could betray it too.

No matter how much the Terror

has been condemned by history,

it was justified at the time. It was understandable.

But at the same time, it totally contrasted

with the spirit of the Republic.

The Republic violated its own principles.

In April 1793,

the regime created an authority

called the Committee of Public Safety,

which would govern France with an iron fist

throughout 1793 and 1794.

Danton dominated the Committee

and operated on all fronts. But this statue,

in Paris' Place de l'Odéan,

reminds us that

the Conventionnels, led by Danton,

pored long and hard over the future of schools and education.

Education is key

To really be a citizen, you must be educated.

A nation must take responsibility for children's education.

So, Danton actually invented free, compulsory education

a century before Jules Ferry.

But this wonderful plan would have to wait, due to civil war.

The Convention's right wing was wiped out.

The Girondin MPs were executed.

As was the lovely Manon Roland, who died with panache.

She said something impressive when she died,

because she ended up being guillotined:

"O liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!"

In this turbulent period, Danton again encountered happiness

with a very pretty young girl, Louise Gély.

Louise Gély was a 16-year-old girl

who looked after Danton's children,

even when Gabrielle was alive.

When she was alive, Gabrielle had said to her husband

in a jokey way:

"If I happen to die one day,

"you'll marry little Louise."

6 months after Gabrielle's death,

he wanted her to be his wife.

But she had one condition: she wanted a church wedding.

In a real church, with a priest

who hadn't sworn an oath to the Civil Constitution.

And Danton agreed, simply because he was in love with Louise.

She was a pretty little thing: a young, fresh 16-year-old

and he'd do anything to get her into his bed.

Little Louise was 16 in 1793

and died a royalist in Niort in 1856, having rubbed shoulders

with the Marquise de La Rochejaquelein.

2 years after the death of her great man, Danton, she married

the prefect of Deux-Sèvres, Prefect Dupin, a future prefect

under Napoleon.

He became baron of the Empire and she, baroness.

He would say to his wife:

"When we go to our friends' party tonight,

"don't mention your first husband."

More concerned with his own happiness,

Danton felt the need to get away from politics.

To people's surprise, he resigned from the government.

And now?

I'm going to fish.

I should've done it long ago.

This episode has intrigued historians for 2 centuries.

For 2 months, he disappeared from political life

and returned to Arcis-sur-Aube, where he was born.

It worked wonders on him:

going home always did.

Surrounded by his family,

land and friends,

he decided, at that moment, to move to Arcis for good

with his little family, and become a landowner.

It's difficult to understand.

He was at the peak of his power and glory.

He was almost president

of the Committee of Public Safety.

Suddenly, he left, making room for Robespierre.

He left at the wrong moment.

Going off to Arcis-sur-Aube, well away from it all,

for 6 weeks

whilst you're sentencing and executing the Girondins

and the queen, is not the right moment.

He wanted to be happy,

to enjoy the pretty young woman who'd become Mrs Danton,

who was happy too.

They wanted to live a normal life, a life of love.

Danton had had enough.

He'd instigated the Terror, remember.

So much blood... He was overwhelmed by what he'd created.

But politics wouldn't leave Danton alone.

Friends like Desmoulins visited him at Arcis

and mentioned Robespierre's worrisome behaviour.

He sees enemies everywhere.

The situation's insane and worsening.

I'll miss all of this.

Danton is back.

With Desmoulins.

On 20 November, Danton returned to Paris and politics.

It wasn't good news for Robespierre.

When Danton returned

to the Convention after his "retirement"

in Arcis-sur-Aube,

it was obvious to all

that a Danton-Robespierre duel had begun.

But he wasn't re-elected

to the Committee of Public Safety.

He wasn't worried.

Danton had a side to him

that was oblivious to danger,

and another side that thought,

"I'm in charge and I'll remain in charge."

"Even if I'm not on the Committee":

he'd created it!

"I'm the boss."

Robespierre was small, pathetic in Danton's eyes.

Danton was strong.

He thought: "I'll crush him and return to power."

In early winter, 1794, Danton made a big splash.

France had abolished privilege

but not slavery or the slave trade in overseas colonies.

Danton wanted to remain leader of the Revolution

and proposed slavery be abolished in all colonies.

I'll give you 8,500.

He defended the abolition of slavery brilliantly,

but the argument he put forward might appear very tactical.

For him, abolishing slavery would finish England:

it might bring St-Domingue's rebel slaves

back to the French cause.

That was Danton's argument.

He did it to annoy the English!

Since the English had a lot more slaves than the French

and France was at war with them,

if the Convention abolished slavery,

the English would have problems with their slaves!

In reality, the abolition decree was only applied

in 2 colonies, Guadeloupe and French Guiana.

Not for long: In May 1802,

Bonaparte restored slavery.

Robespierre kept quiet. How could you know what he thought?

If you rely on his portraits,

it's hard to imagine what he was like.

Some show a smiling face,

others, an austere one, that of the Incorruptible.

A new image of Robespierre from Barcelona

has caused quite a stir.

This image was created in a computer graphics lab

by means of 3D facial reconstruction techniques

commonly used by forensic doctors and police.

Philippe Froesch, an expert in this technique,

has done many reconstructions.

For Robespierre,

he used the death mask from his decapitated head.

We were lucky to work with his death mask

from the museum

in Aix en Provence.

It's a copy of Robespierre's face after execution.

After scanning the plaster mask,

what was immediately very striking

was that the face was covered in pockmarks.

We detected over 100 smallpox scars.

It was very striking.

And now, like a corpse coming back to life,

Robespierre opens his eyes.

To make it more realistic, we just need to add a wig.

Maximilien Robespierre is looking at you.

Not the kind of man you'd want to meet in a dark alley.

When we saw the face

reconstructed by our software, with eyes open,

our first reaction was one of fright.

His face may not look very engaging,

but it's because of the dimples on the mask.

He was ill.

And the pockmarks give that disturbing appearance.

Numerous historians object

to this image. They see it as a caricature.

They prefer this bust

by Louis Pierre Deseine, renowned for his realism.

This bust shows

a very different image.

Nothing like

that monstrous reconstruction.

It is widely felt

that this portrait of Robespierre is the most authentic one there is.

He was 37 here. He wasn't yet in office,

but you see what kind of a man he is:

a determined, intelligent man,

shaped by the Enlightenment and the philosophers,

a very elegant man judging by his dress.

I'd say this is the real Robespierre. Behold the man.

Historians will probably continue to argue over

Robespierre's real nature for years to come.

To help them, everything to do with Robespierre

is kept here in the Carnavalet Museum in Paris.

This room is dedicated to the Terror. It contains

the 2 most famous portraits of Danton and Robespierre.

After Danton, Robespierre led the Committee of Public Safety.

The Incorruptible had a loyal group around him.

The most loyal member was Couthon, paralysed in both legs.

His wheelchair is practically unchanged.

In a way,

it is the forerunner of today's wheelchairs.

They adapted a lounge chair and fitted it

onto a 3-wheeled, triangular frame,

with a board for a footrest at the front.

This pistol belonged to Saint-Just.

He was almost Robespierre's alter ego,

"arch-henchman", some said.

His angel face can't hide the fact

he was 1 of the most uncompromising figures

in the Committee.

Just next to that is a lock of Robespierre's hair,

light brown hair.

This is the briefcase in which Robespierre kept the speeches

that he gave at the Convention or at the Jacobin Club.

Indeed, the Incorruptible gave

a famous speech on 25 December 1793

that started his duel with Danton.

Despite their former friendship, it was a duel to the death

and the only master they served was the national interest.

It is now.

Robespierre thought the nation

needed to defend the Revolution on 2 fronts.

He felt that the Revolution

had 2 types of enemy:

those who would take it too far

and those taking it backwards.

Those going too far

followed the ultra-left leader,

Jacques-René Hébert,

who advocated permanent revolution.

Insurrection!

Hébert wanted executions and blood constantly.

He wanted a revolution that purged itself constantly,

that harked back to Marat's calls for murder.

Hébert had no real political agenda.

For Robespierre, the enemy on the left was Hébert.

On the right, it was Danton and his followers,

nicknamed the "Indulgents".

Robespierre saw Danton as an Indulgent,

someone who misunderstood the current circumstances

and advocated an early cessation of the Terror,

and therefore risked bolstering a counter-revolution.

Robespierre's goal was to uphold the Revolution,

and he criticised Danton for being moderate.

That caused Danton's downfall.

The Terror's instigator had become moderate.

Robespierre decided to destroy both camps,

one after the other.

To deal with Hébert,

we need Danton as our ally.

Let's put Hébert's arrest to a vote. Who is for?

In spring 1794, with Danton's support,

Robespierre sent Hébert and his camp to the guillotine.

After that,

Robespierre decided

that Danton must die.

The duel between Danton and Robespierre was to begin.

I'd say that one was pragmatic

and the other was an idealist.

Neither could survive.

The pragmatist couldn't,

because the idealist always wanted to go further

and the idealist couldn't, because the ideal doesn't exist on Earth.

So, this alliance hastened them towards death.

However, the 2 men agreed to meet.

Here is that famous meeting

as recounted in Andrzej Wajda's Danton,

with Gérard Depardieu playing Danton.

You dream of power?

I don't need to: I've got it.

The only real power: the man in the street.

I understand him and he understands me. Never forget that.

I shan't. And don't you forget

that I shall stop at nothing

to ensure his happiness!

You want his happiness?

You know nothing of the people!

How could you? Look at yourself!

You don't drink. You're powdered!

Swords make you faint.

They say you've never had a woman!

For whom do you speak?!

You want to make men happy, but you're not even a man!

Before that dinner, Robespierre still wanted to save Danton.

The Committee had condemned Danton already.

But, as usual, Danton waved his hands about,

spoke loudly, shouted and screamed...

He scorned Robespierre.

Robespierre froze. I think it was at that moment

that Robespierre condemned Danton to death, inwardly.

30 March. The Committee ordered the arrest

of Danton and his friends

including Desmoulins and d'Églantine.

The order bore Robespierre's signature.

Robespierre

Legendre?

In the next few hours, his friends suggested that he flee.

but Danton refused.

No. No, I won't leave.

He then uttered a phrase

that is still famous today:

"You can't take your country

"with you when you flee."

That sums Danton up.

Danton knew they'd arrest him that night.

He spent his last night in an armchair facing the front door

although his wife asked him to join her.

He refused: he didn't want to be arrested in bed.

He was Danton, he wanted some dignity.

Wait outside.

This is how the Committee's henchmen

found him that night.

I am the happiest man in France.

The trial began on 2 April and seemed to be

a foregone conclusion.

But Danton had a strategy: to expose the skulduggery.

He put the Tribunal on trial.

Danton was a formidable orator and tribune.

He'd've been here

with the accused, on this platform.

Normally, you had a lawyer. He defended himself.

That was essential.

It meant that he could respond to

Fouquier-Tinville's accusations tit for tat.

The 2 men began to talk,

a verbal tussle ensued.

You will respect this court!

And may I remind the citizen chairman

of the respect he owes to justice!

He had to answer many accusations.

He was accused of becoming rich, of going to live in England,

of dissolute conduct,

of befriending Mirabeau... Many accusations.

Fouquier-Tinville launched a series of 10 charges.

You are accused of being paid

by fanatical conspirators to curb freedom.

I have never been bought.

I'm priceless.

Nobody can afford Danton.

Clearly, he was controlling the Tribunal.

On balconies and windows,

people gathered to hear his great voice.

He knew that the Committee

and the Tribunal were one and the same,

that the Committee slipped answers to the Tribunal in the wings,

passed phrases, suggestions and evidence to the prosecutor.

He pointed to Fouquier-Tinville and the judges and said:

"They're telling you what to do, they're whispering it."

And he won over the crowd.

Fouquier-Tinville ended up having to ask Danton

to stop defending himself.

They ended up expelling him from the room

so they could pronounce sentence quietly

without the crowd screaming in favour of Danton.

The Republic and our lives are in your hands!

Get out! Out! Go on!

He could have won his trial.

He held all the aces. He even had right on his side.

Even Fouquier-Tinville had doubts.

He went to the Committee and said:

"This trial is fixed." But Robespierre and Saint-Just

had already decided. Danton was sentenced.

Arise, children of the Fatherland

The day of glory has arrived

Against us tyranny's bloody banner...

"In the name of the Republic, the public prosecutor

"sentences Georges Danton to death,

"which execution shall take place today,

"5th April, at 4pm,

"in Place de la Révolution." Signed "Fouquier-Tinville".

Public Prosecutor

The die was cast.

On 5 April, at 4pm,

Danton, Desmoulins,

d'Églantine and friends went to the guillotine.

He wanted to stand as there was a big crowd on the road,

there to watch this incredible spectacle.

They crossed the Seine near the Conciergerie.

They passed the Café Parnasse,

where he'd met his wife, Gabrielle.

All the memories of Gabrielle...

Then he passed the gates of the Palais-Royal,

where he'd made his 1st great revolutionary speeches,

where it all began.

Further down the street,

he passed Robespierre's house.

And Danton hurled abuse at his window:

"You'll soon follow me. You're next!"

Then the carts turned left

onto Rue Royale.

Danton's companions on the cart kept calm,

except for Camille Desmoulins, who got all worked up,

wanted to break free

and started shouting at passers-by.

He was pale, covered in sweat,

so much so, that Danton said: "Calm down.

"Leave the rabble alone."

Then, the cart reached the square.

The guillotine was in the square,

sitting on a scaffold, so it was elevated:

it looked very daunting.

They began guillotining people, one after the other.

Lucile!

Danton was last in line.

The star of the show always goes last.

The penultimate guy went to kiss Danton

and Sanson, the executioner, pushed him away: "No time for that!"

Danton looked at Sanson calmly and said:

"Idiot! You won't stop us kissing in the basket!"

Danton did an unusual thing:

he didn't wait to be taken up.

When de Séchelles went up, he followed.

He retained the attitude of defiance and freedom

that he had on the Convention podium.

The scaffold was his final podium.

When he slid his head into the lunette,

he said to Sanson:

"Show my head to the people, it's worth it."

Now!

Meanwhile,

despite his strength, he had to pull himself together.

He was heard murmuring this legendary phrase

to himself: "Come on, Danton, no weakness."

Saying "no weakness" shows how bold he was.

Right up to the last moment, he personified vigour,

the life force, the strength of freedom.

In the end, the scaffold didn't get the better of Danton.

Robespierre's elimination of Danton

was definitely a big mistake.

When he eliminated Danton, who was a significant person,

Robespierre caused fear throughout the Convention

and set in motion the plot that was to topple him months later.

- Death to tyrants! - Death to tyrants!

The story of these 2 men was a Greek tragedy.

It would make a marvellous play.

2 very different men heading in the same direction

become alien to one another.

They're at different ends of the same reality.

Robespierre represented a left wing

that extended rights and duties to collective rights,

even if it meant equality trumping liberty.

Danton upheld individual liberty,

Liberty, full stop.

In Republican households,

some followed Robespierre, others tended towards Danton.

Nothing has changed.

The virtues of the Revolution are universal and eternal.

We owe that to men like Danton.

Below the statue of Kellermann, the victor at Valmy,

the words of Goethe are displayed

on a plaque. It reads:

"On this day, in this place

"a new era began in the history of the world."

Valmy was followed by other victories

that reinforced Republican conquests

and hastened Robespierre's downfall.

Danton was right:

even in the worst moments, we must save human lives.

Danton was certainly no angel.

At times, his pragmatism could seem harsh,

but he profoundly embodied the patriotic fervour

that strives to unite men when the nation is threatened.

For years to come, he will be considered

as 1 of the Republic's founding fathers.

Thanks for watching.

See you again soon for another episode of History's Secrets.

Subtitles: KARL63