De Tocqueville had many conversations with M. Royer Collard respecting the events of 1789.  Difficult to get much out of men of our period relative to their own early manhood.  His own father (now 82) much less capable of communicating details of former regime than might have been supposed.  Because, says De Tocqueville, youths of eighteen to twenty hardly ever possess the faculty or the inclination to note social peculiarities.  They accept what they find going, and scarcely give a thought to the contemplation of what is familiar to them and of every day’s experience.  Royer Collard was a man of superior mind:  had a great deal to relate.  De Tocqueville used to pump him whenever an opportunity occurred.  Knew Danton well, used to discuss political affairs with him.  When revolution was fairly launched, saw him occasionally.  Danton was venal to the last degree; received money from the Court over and over again; ‘agitated,’ and was again sopped by the agents of Marie Antoinette.  When matters grew formidable (in 1791) Royer Collard was himself induced to become an agent or go-between of the Court for buying up Danton.  He sought an opportunity, and after some prefatory conversations Royer Collard led Danton to the point.  ‘No,’ said Danton, ’I cannot listen to any such suggestions now.  Times are altered.  It is too late.  ‘Nous le detronerons et puis nous le tuerons,’ added he in an emphatic tone.  Royer Collard of course gave up the hope of succeeding.

Danton’s passion for a young girl, whom he married, became his ruin.  While he was honeymooning it by some river’s margin, Robespierre got the upper hand in the Assembly, and caused him to be seized—­mis en jugement—­and soon afterwards guillotined.  The woman did not know, it is affirmed, that it was Danton who set the massacres of 1792 agoing; she thought him a good-hearted man.  He set all his personal enemies free out of their prisons prior to the commencement of the massacres; wishing to be able to boast of having spared his enemies, as a proof that he was actuated by no ignoble vengeance, but only by a patriotic impulse.  He was a low, mean-souled fanatic, who had no clear conception of what he was aiming at, but who delighted in the horrid excitement prevailing around him.  It was Tallien who had the chief share in the deposition of Robespierre and the transactions of the 9th thermidor.  Madame Tallien was then in prison, and going to be executed in a few days (she was not yet married to Tallien then).  She wrote, by stealth of course, a few emphatic words, with a toothpick and soot wetted, to Tallien which nerved him to the conflict, and she was saved.  Talleyrand told De Tocqueville she was beyond everything captivating, beautiful, and interesting.  She afterwards became the mistress of Barras, and finally married the Prince de Chimay.

De Tocqueville has been at Vore, Helvetius’ chateau in La Perche—­a fine place, and Helvetius lived en seigneur there.  A grand-daughter of Helvetius married M. de Rochambeau, uncle, by mother’s side, of Alexis:  so that the great-grandchildren are De Tocqueville’s first cousins.