Note 286 — BOOK IX[283]

Antoine Saint-Just (1767-1794) has been only once mentioned in the Memoirs (Cf. Vol. III., p. 196). He was born a few months after Barbaroux, and died three days later. This "black-haired, mild-toned youth," to quote Carlyle, was one of the most violent organizers of the Terror. He became President of the Convention in February 1794 and took charge of the reports against his colleagues Danton, Camille Desmoulins and others, who were promptly sent to the scaffold. Almost alone he defended Robespierre, was eventually involved in the same condemnation, and was guillotined with him on the 28th of July. Saint-Just cultivated the Muse: at the early age of twenty, he published Organt, a licentious poem in twenty cantos (1789). He also left the Esprit de la Révolution (1791) and a number of Reports and Opinions delivered in the Convention.—T.