Collot d'Herbois, JEAN MARIE

Collot d'Herbois, JEAN MARIE, a French revolutionist of infamous notoriety, was born in Paris in 1750. Originally a provincial actor, he was attracted by the Revolution to Paris, where his impudence, his loud voice, and his Almanach du Père Gérard, secured him the public ear and his election for Paris to the National Convention. In 1793 he became president of the Convention and a member of the murderous Committee of Public Safety. Sent by Robespierre to Lyons in November of the same year, he took bloody revenge by guillotine and grapeshot on the inhabitants for having once hissed him off the stage in the theatre. His popularity at length exciting the envy of Robespierre, Collot d'Herbois for his own safety joined in the successful plot for the overthrow of Robespierre, 1794; but the reaction that followed proved fatal to himself. He was expelled from the Convention, and banished to Cayenne, where he died, January 8, 1796.