The Consequences of Terror, 1794–1796
Returning from his missions, Rousselin found the capital riven by factions divided in part by the proper role of Revolutionary violence. After reining in the popular movement in March, the faction led by Maximilien Robespierre turned on Rousselin’s patrons, Camille Desmoulins and Georges-Jacques Danton, who were guillotined in April 1794. Rousselin sought alternative networks but Robespierre and Georges Couthon turned on him and sent him to the Revolutionary Tribunal because of denunciations from Troyes. Rousselin helped to gather former friends of Danton and pushed ultra-terrorists like Joseph Fouche to act. On 9 Thermidor, Robespierre and his friends were executed in turn. The Terror, however, continued as many of the tactics of the terrorists were turned against them by those they had tormented. Rousselin spent two years in and out of jail until an amnesty was proclaimed in 1796.