then north, south, and east the coalition was complete.  It represented at least half a million fighting men.  Danton, having no military knowledge or experience, fixed his hopes on Dumouriez.  To Danton, Dumouriez was the only man who could save France.  On November 6, 1792, Dumouriez defeated the Austrians at Jemmapes; on the 14th, he entered Brussels, and Belgium lay helpless before him.  On the question of the treatment of Belgium, the schism began which ended with his desertion.  Dumouriez was a conservative who plotted for a royal restoration under, perhaps, Louis Philippe.  The Convention, on the contrary, determined to revolutionize Belgium, as France had been revolutionized, and to this end Cambon proposed to confiscate and sell church land and emit assignats.  Danton visited Dumouriez to attempt to pacify him, but found him deeply exasperated.  Had Danton been more sagacious he would have been suspicious.  Unfortunately for him he left Dumouriez in command.  In February, Dumouriez invaded Holland and was repulsed, and he then fell back to Brussels, not strong enough to march to Paris without support, it is true, but probably expecting to be strong enough as soon as the Vendean insurrection came to a head.  Doubtless he had relations with the rebels.  At all events, on March 10, the insurrection began with the massacre of Machecoul, and on March 12, 1793, Dumouriez wrote a letter to the Convention which was equivalent to a declaration of war.  He then tried to corrupt his army, but failed, and on April 4, 1793, fled to the Austrians.  Meanwhile, La Vendee was in flames.  To appreciate the situation one must read Carnot’s account of the border during these weeks when he alone, probably, averted some grave disaster.  For my purpose it suffices to say that the pressure was intense, and that this intense pressure brought forth the Revolutionary Tribunal, or the political court.

On March 10, 1793, the Convention passed a decree constituting a court of five judges and a jury, to be elected by the Convention.  To these was joined a public prosecutor.  Fouquier-Tinville afterward attained to a sombre fame in this position.  Six members of the Convention were to sit as a commission to supervise drawing the indictments, the preparation of evidence, and also to advise the prosecutor.  The punishments, under the limitations of the Penal Code and other criminal laws, were to be within the discretion of the court, whose judgments were to be final.[40] Death was accompanied by confiscation of property.

Considering that this was an extraordinary tribunal, working under extreme tension, which tried persons against whom usually the evidence was pretty conclusive, its record for the first six months was not discreditable.  Between April 6 and September 21, 1793, it rendered sixty-three sentences of death, thirteen of transportation, and thirty-eight acquittals.  The trials were held patiently, testimony was heard, and the juries duly deliberated.  Nevertheless the Terror deepened