ABSTRACT
After the revolutionary overthrow of the monarchy in France, the question of the fate of Louis XVI is posed before the Convention. The ‘sublime’ revolutionary Saint-Just dismisses in the following terms the Girondins’ suggestion to ‘appeal to the People’ over the question of whether the deposed King should stand trial: ‘Those who attach importance to the just punishment of a king will never establish a democracy.’ Two weeks later, in his address to the Convention, Robespierre will seal the fate of Louis XVI:
[p]eople doubt whether he is guilty, whether it is permitted to treat him like the enemy. The Constitution is invoked in his favour. I do not intend to repeat here all the unanswerable arguments developed by those who deign to answer objections of that sort. On this matter I will say a word for the benefit of those whom they have not convinced. The constitution forbade everything that you have done … You have no right at all to hold him in prison. He has the right to ask you for his release and for damages and interest. The Constitution condemns you: fall at Louis XVI’s feet and ask for his clemency!
