Billaud-Varenne, JEAN NICOLAS

Billaud-Varenne, JEAN NICOLAS, one of the Terrorists in the French Revolution, was born at La Rochelle, 23d April 1756. From 1785 an advocate in Paris, he soon joined the Jacobin club, and became one of the leaders of the revolutionary movement. He took an active part in the September massacres, and distinguished himself in the Convention for his violence against the king and the royal family, and his general unfeeling cruelty. During the Terror he was president of the Convention and member of the Committee of Public Safety, and it was mainly at his instance that the Duke of Orleans, the queen, and a host of other victims, were arraigned before the fatal Revolutionary Tribunal. He joined in the end in bringing about the fall of Robespierre, but could not ward off his own condemnation to be transported to Cayenne (1795), where he lived about twenty years, rejecting the pardon offered by the First Consul. In 1816 he went to New York, but was coldly received, and then sought an asylum in Hayti, where he died at Port au Prince, June 3, 1819.