It may be necessary, perhaps, to purge the prisons at once and free the soil of liberty of their filth, the refuse of humanity." The Committee of Public Safety consequently "charges the commission to ascertain in the prisons of Paris...

who have been more specially concerned in the diverse factions and conspiracies that the National convention has destroyed." The word "approved" appears at the foot of the resolution in Robespierre's handwriting, then the signature of Robespierre, and lower down, those of Billaud and Barere.

A similar resolution providing for the 7th of Messidor, signed by the same parties and five others, is dispatched the same day.

(M.de Martel came across and made use of this conclusive document before I did, most of it being quoted in "Les Types Revolutionnaires.")] [Footnote 31172: Buchez et Roux, XXXIII., 434.].