5.  The Reign of Terror.—­Horror at the bloodshed perpetrated by the Mountain led a young girl, named Charlotte Corday, to assassinate Marat, whom she supposed to be the chief cause of the cruelties that were taking place; but his death only added to the dread of reaction.  A Committee of Public Safety was appointed by the Convention, and endeavoured to sweep away every being who either seemed adverse to equality, or who might inherit any claim to rank.  The queen was put to death nine months after her husband; and the Girondins, who had begun to try to stem the tide of slaughter, soon fell under the denunciation of the more violent.  To be accused of “conspiring against the State” was instantly fatal, and no one’s life was safe.  Danton was denounced by Robespierre, and perished; and for three whole years the Reign of Terror lasted.  The emigrants, by forming an army and advancing on France, assisted by the forces of Germany, only made matters worse.  There was such a dread of the old oppressions coming back, that the peasants were ready to fight to the death against the return of the nobles.  The army, where promotion used to go by rank instead of merit, were so glad of the change, that they were full of fresh spirit, and repulsed the army of Germans and emigrants all along the frontier.  The city of Lyons, which had tried to resist the changes, was taken, and frightfully used by Collot d’Herbois, a member of the Committee of Public Safety.  The guillotine was too slow for him, and he had the people mown down with grape-shot, declaring that of this great city nothing should be left but a monument inscribed, “Lyons resisted liberty—­Lyons is no more!” In La Vendee—­a district of Anjou, where the peasants were much attached to their clergy and nobles—­they rose and gained such successes, that they dreamt for a little while of rescuing and restoring the little captive son of Louis XVI.; but they were defeated and put down by fire and sword, and at Nantes an immense number of executions took place, chiefly by drowning.  It was reckoned that no less than 18,600 persons were guillotined in the three years between 1790 and 1794, besides those who died by other means.  Everything was changed.  Religion was to be done away with; the churches were closed; the tenth instead of the seventh day appointed for rest.  “Death is an eternal sleep” was inscribed on the schools; and Reason, represented by a classically dressed woman, was enthroned in the cathedral of Notre Dame.  At the same time a new era was invented, the 22nd of September, 1792; the months had new names, and the decimal measures of length, weight, and capacity, which are based on the proportions of the earth, were planned.  All this time Robespierre really seems to have thought himself the benefactor of the human race; but at last the other members of the Convention took courage to denounce him, and he, with five more, was arrested and sent to the guillotine.  The bloodthirsty fever was over, the Committee of Public Safety was overthrown, and people breathed again.