Fouquier-Tinville, ANTOINE QUENTIN

Fouquier-Tinville, ANTOINE QUENTIN, one of the most notorious actors in the French Revolution, was born in the village of Hérouelles, in the department of Aisne, in 1747. Originally an attorney of dissolute habits, he ranged himself, on the outbreak of the Revolution, in the ranks of the most violent among the democrats. Appointed by Robespierre and Danton public prosecutor to the Revolutionary Tribunal on 10th March 1793, he superintended during the Reign of Terror, until 25th July 1794, all the political executions decreed by the tribunal. His performance of his duties was characterised by pitiless rigour, brutality, and callous indifference. He apparently regarded it as his mission to supply the guillotine with a regular supply of victims, and no bribes were able to turn him from his purpose. And he sent his friends, among them Robespierre, Danton, and Hébert, to execution in the same spirit in which he sent their enemies. On the overthrow of the Reign of Terror he was himself guillotined on 7th March 1795.