ABSTRACT
This chapter considers what saved the Convention from the dreadful dangers that appeared to be on the point of overwhelming it in the summer of 1793. The Revolution had been saved and at the same time given a completely different direction, and it would be very tempting to argue that these two processes were firmly linked. If there is one thing on which all histories of the Revolution are agreed, it is that the year 1793 marked the most dramatic moment in its trajectory. On the contrary, a variety of difficulties that had been simmering in the Revolutionary camp for some time now suddenly boiled over. Though sometimes lumped together with the armed resistance to the Revolution that was wreaking such havoc in western France, this actually represented something very different, namely not a clash between revolution and counter-revolution, but a civil war in the Revolutionary camp.
