#cazin

Charlotte Robespierre is said to have physically restrained Couthon so that Maurice Gaillard could escape, according to Gaillard’s own account, later reported by Lenôtre. This episode is discussed in detail in the excellent post by @anotherhumaninthisworld, available here: https://www.tumblr.com/anotherhumaninthisworld/747746530277146624/i-found-the-charlotte?source=share

Tallien reportedly threatened to stab Robespierre if he were not placed under arrest.

According to Paul Ségur, Fouché allegedly proposed having Robespierre seized as a rebel and thrown into the river.

On 19 Brumaire, Year VIII, Fouché is said to have promised Arnault and Regnault that he would throw into the river anyone who caused unrest in Paris, according to Louis Madelin.

Bonaparte reportedly threatened Buonarroti with appearing before a military commission and being executed, according to General Bertrand (Cahiers de Sainte-Hélène, 1818–1819).

Lazare Carnot is said to have threatened to strike Fréron with a stick:

“Fréron had especially lobbied to drive Lazare Carnot from the Committee of Public Safety. Throughout November of 1794, he attacked him in the Orateur du Peuple. Carnot caught Fréron off guard one day and threatened to beat him with a stick if he persisted in his attacks.” (Kuscinski, Dictionnaire, entry on Lazare Carnot)

Babeuf was at times involved in physical altercations with police officers when he failed to persuade them, which occasionally enabled him to escape. One such confrontation involved police inspector Pernet and other officers shortly before Babeuf managed to flee once again( according to Robert Rose Barrie). At other moments, Gracchus Babeuf openly incited the crowd to intervene and stop the police attempting to arrest him, resulting in the officers being roughly handled.

During his final imprisonment in Vendôme, Babeuf “kicked the cook twice in the ribs.” Together with his colleague Blondeau, he is also said to have mistreated the prison doctor (according to historian Jean-Marc Schiappa).

From his prison in Vendôme, Charles Germain reportedly

“gave himself over to the most violent excesses, attempting to strike the administrators with his chair; they would have fallen victim to his rage had it not been for the presence of the gendarmerie officers and the concierge.” (Robert Legrand)

Blondeau, imprisoned in Cherbourg, stated about his fellow detainee Charles Germain that

“he would have preferred death to entering into a new association with Germain, whom he considered a scoundrel and whom he would kill unless he himself were struck down first.” (Robert Legrand)

Cazin, another Babouvist detainee in the Cherbourg prison, wrote that

“Moroy and Blondeau got along very well together (…) and that they hated Cazin, and he hated them in return,” adding that he even feared being murdered by them (Robert Legrand).

Félix Le Peletier threatened to attack Jean-François de Witt if he married his niece Suzanne Le Peletier, as evidenced by a letter sent to de Witt’s mother, Madame de Witt:

“Only through an atrocious crime will your son become my niece’s husband. She is a victim being cunningly used to achieve this end. Even those who are leading her astray know everything. One day, if your son marries Minette, he will learn more. When that secret is revealed, he will have my life or I will have his — but the peace of his household will be shattered forever if he survives…”

Félix Le Peletier also challenged Ernest Talleyrand to a duel after Talleyrand married one of Suzanne Le Peletier’s two daughters. The dispute arose from Talleyrand’s refusal to repay 50,000 livres owed to Félix by his late niece. Ernest Talleyrand declined the duel. (Laurence Constant, Félix Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau – Un itinéraire, de la Révolution à la monarchie de Juillet)

Notes and Context

P.S. – Regarding Carnot: Some elements of these accounts should be treated with caution, as many of the accusations originate in Barras’s memoirs. Since Carnot had criticized Barras and his circle for their violence, they retaliated by portraying him as a brutal man in turn. These claims should therefore be handled carefully.

On Charles Germain: His violent behavior is partly understandable given his circumstances. In addition to his arrest and his transport to Vendôme in an iron cage, he learned of his wife’s murder by brigands, leaving their three-year-old child behind—presumably with family, but under severe financial strain.

On the violence involving Germain, Babeuf, and Blondeau: Jean-Marc Schiappa notes that while Babeuf was known for his sometimes explosive temperament, it never reached such intensity as during his imprisonment in Vendôme. This, he argues, stemmed from Babeuf’s “defensive strategy of rupture,” which involved rejecting all authority in order to mobilize public opinion—seen as essential to the accused’s eventual “rescue.”

On the behavior of Blondeau, Cazin, and other prisoners: The prison conditions in Cherbourg were atrocious, compounded by uncertainty over possible deportation. Prisoners frequently fell ill, making violent tensions almost inevitable. In such situations, either solidarity increases or conflicts intensify; in this case, the latter prevailed. Moreover, Cazin wrongly believed at times that Germain had acted as an informant for Barras, which was not the case. Furthermore, it's important to remember that just because revolutionaries fought on the same side and didn't betray each other doesn't mean they get along. Sometimes they are comrades in arms but despise each other.

Further Reading on Tumblr

On the antagonistic relationship between Carnot and Fréron: https://www.tumblr.com/nesiacha/789452990250614784/the-antagonistic-relationship-between-fr%C3%A9ron-and?source=share

Jean Charles Cazin

(1841 - 1901)

Returning Home

Oil on canvas

32 1/4 x 25 3/4 inches

Signed

As a reminder, Charles Germain was one of the leading figures of the Babouvist movement who were condemned to deportation during the Vendôme trial.

Imprisoned in Cherbourg alongside men like Buonarroti, Cazin, Moroy, Blondeau, Vadier, he decided to write directly to Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul.

On 6 Frimaire Year VIII, he sent the following letter:

“I am one of those sentenced to deportation by the High Court of Vendôme. I was born in Narbonne in 1771. At the age of sixteen, I traded my Aristotle for a horse and a musket. In 1790, my good parents bought me a full discharge; two months later, I took up the helmet and saber again. In 1793, representatives on mission with the Army of the Western Pyrenees decorated me on the battlefield with an epaulette in the 12th Hussars. On 24 Prairial Year II, the representatives dismissed me. After coming to Paris following 9 Thermidor, a minor scuffle earned me a lettre de cachet. After nine months in detention, I was released and found myself, on 13 Vendémiaire, in the ranks of the patriots (I still have my certificate). The new government was established: Jean-Baptiste Annibal Aubert-Dubayet, Minister of War, promised me employment, while Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai (referred to here as Cochon), Minister of Police, had me arrested on 21 Floréal Year IV… I am 28 years old; I have spent five years in prison. I have only ever been a soldier, I have served in three active campaigns, and I have received wounds. I still have some blood left: do not let it calcify in the horror of dungeons; allow me to go and shed it at the frontier… provided I may serve liberty and, if necessary, die for it. My parents are poor, and I have always been poor myself. Long live the Republic. Respectful greetings.”

(French National Archives, BB³ 21)

According to Robert Legrand, Lucien Bonaparte intervened at one point to ease the conditions of Buonarroti, Blondeau Moroy, and Germain by granting them a small daily allowance of three francs while they were held on the island of Oléron awaiting deportation to Guyana.

On Oléron, a report mentions that Charles Germain and others “maintain incendiary rhetoric against the government and its officials; they publicly insulted the local justice of the peace and are corrupting the public spirit.”

Later, like many neo-Jacobins (especially Babouvists), he was deported following the Rue Saint-Nicaise assassination attempt.

In 1802, he reunited in Cayenne with former Babouvist companions, including René Vatar.

Here is what Robert Legrand writes about him:

“He remained there for several years. The governor, General Hugues, enlisted certain exiles on privateers maintained for the defense of the colony. Some deportees from Cayenne were wounded while fighting the English off the coast of Africa. Germain, one of the most indomitable republicans of his time, was captured in one of these engagements and taken aboard English prison hulks. He never ceased to preach to French sailors and soldiers, his companions in misfortune, a love of the Republic and hatred of Bonaparte.”

Meanwhile, in January 1809, a Portuguese fleet and an English corvette attacked Cayenne, forcing Governor Hugues to capitulate. A prisoner of the English, Germain was still held on prison hulks in 1810; he did not return to France until 1814.

Nothing is known about him after that date (although there are some hypotheses—but that will be for a future post).

(SOLD ARCHIVES)

JEAN CHARLES CAZIN

(1841 - 1901)

Harvest Landscape

Oil on canvas

35 x 45 inches

Signed

Lungo l’Ottocento, con massima pressione nel cinquantennio tra 1825 e 1875, la provincia francese si gremì di un nuovo genere di amatore fino a quel momento ignoto: il Cazinofilo, colui che raccoglieva le edizioni di Hubert-Martin Cazin, libraio nato nel 1724 e ucciso a Parigi, presso la chiesa di Saint-Roch, il 13 Vendemmiaio dell’anno III (vale a dire il 5 ottobre 1795), inventore di edizioni di piccolo formato in diciottesimo e in ventiquattresimo, assai eleganti e comode, e dunque molto ricercate a partire dalla scomparsa dell’editore. I cosiddetti «jolis petits Cazin» sono libretti davvero graziosi, stampati su carte leggermente colorate con toni giallini, azzurri e verdognoli, rilegati in marocchino decorato o pelle marmorizzata, arricchiti da graziose incisioni xilografiche capaci di donare malinconici stupori d’antan. Si calcola che i Cazin autentici, suddivisi in alcune collane, siano in tutto 437. Ci fu chi spese buona parte dei propri averi per riuscire a possedere una raccolta il più possibile completa, e non fu contento finché non riuscì ad avere, verso la fine del secolo, anche un eccellente volumetto redatto da un Cazinophile (che poi era Brissart Binet) e uscito nel 1877* a Cazinopolis (che poi era Parigi): Cazin, sa vie et ses éditions. Era il catalogo completo delle pubblicazioni di Cazin e anche delle contraffazioni. Per dirsi verace, il cazinofilo doveva possedere anche quello.

A. Castronuovo, la voce Cazinofili dal Dizionario del bibliomane, Palermo, Sellerio, 2021 (*) L'anno della prima edizione del libro di Brissaet-Binet è il 1863, non il 1877; vedi sotto la pagina del libro pubblicata su Archive. Vedi QUI la prima edizione.