COLLOT D’HERBOIS & BILLAUD-VARENNE :

COLLOT D’HERBOIS & BILLAUD-VARENNE : Jean Marie Collot d´Herbois (1749-1796) French Actor, Dramatist and Revolutionary. President of the National Convention in June 1793. Although he saved Madame Tussaud from the guillotine, d'Herbois administered the execution of more than 2,000 people in the city of Lyon during the Reign of Terror; Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne (1756-1819) French Revolutionary, often considered a key architect of the period known as The Reign of Terror. Both Collot D´Herbois and Billaud-Varenne were members of the Committee of Public Safety and were sentenced to deportation to French Guiana after their involvement in the 12th Germinal insurrection (1st April 1795). An excellent selection of documents comprising an extremely rare A.L.S., `Collot´ by Colot D´herbois´ wife, Anne Catherine Catrais (1759-1810) and countersigned `Billaud´ by Billaud-Varenne´s wife, Anne Angélique Doye, one page, 4to, to Paul Barras. The letter is written six months after their husbands were condemned and sent to French Guiana and is a plea to Barras, very recently appointed main executive leader of the Directory regime, and states in part `..because your report has to be issued this evening...we beg you to support our request to the Directory regarding their deliberation... in our favour. We wait and expect all from you..´. Their request never got a response; Together with a printed report entitled `..for the examination of Collot D´Herbois and Billaud-Varenne´s behaviour, people´s representatives..´ by Saladin, member of the Convention, 50 pages, 8vo, 3rd March 1795. The denounce mentions their complicity with Robespierre and St-Just; Also including an excellent D.S., by Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne, Jean Marie Collot d'Herbois, Lazare Carnot (1753-1823) and Robert Lindet (1746-1825), one page, folio, Public Safety heading and is individually signed by these four Convention leaders. Accompanied by two printed decrees, the first from 12th Germinal, including 22 articles, eight pages, 4to, bearing a red ink stamp, and the second from 29th Germinal, three pages, 4to, listing the commissions members; Also including an extremely rare A.L.S., by Billaud-Varenne (`Billaud-Varenne´), two pages, 4to, from L´Hermitage, French Guiana, 4th October 1814, to Riviere-Oncle. Billaud-Varenne, pardoned by Napoleon, remains in French Guiana as farmer, and states `The nigger who brought your objects has told me that the buffet you have ordered to make for me is now finished. As I have no craft, I will write to...´ further saying `..I am involved in the exploitation of my mangroves, and this is a task that I can´t leave not even an instant..´ With blank integral leaf. G to VG, 6 £1000-1200 Paul Barras (1755-1829) French Politician during revolution, President of the National Convention and the main executive Leader of the Directory regime of 1795-99.