feeling my oath

For Fréron’s father Élie Fréron praising one of Collot d’Herbois’ plays, see this post.

For the relationship between Desmoulins and Charles Lambrechts, see a letter to the former from the latter dated September 12 1781, cited in Camille et Lucile Desmoulins: un rêve de république (2018) page 28-29: ”[Your successes make me encourage you] to make the final efforts to overcome the small natural defect of which you complain, and which must embarrass you much more in France than it would embarrass you in this country, where people hardly plead verbally, and where in all genres people look much more at the substance than at the form; I urge you, however, not to be discouraged on this side and I dare to predict that with constancy you will overcome all obstacles; you will imitate Demosthenes in this.”

For the relationship between Desmoulins and Lucile Duplessis’ mother, see this post.

For Lucile Desmoulins and Sylvain Maréchal’s relationship, see Lucile’s diary from 1788.

For Hérault de Séchelles and Michel Lepeletier being childhood friends, see the Convention session of December 29 1793 (Gazette nationale ou le Moniteur universel, number 100, page 404), during which Hérault is recorded to have said: ”I who, in the world, have never had more than one close friend since the age of six. Here he is! Michel Lepeletier, oh you from whom I have never parted, you whose virtue was my model, you who like me was the target of parliamentary hatred, happy martyr!”

For Billaud-Varennes serving as Danton’s secretary in 1787, see Billaud-Varenne, membre du Comité de salut public: mémoires inédits et correspondance (1893) page 21. See also Notes de Topino-Lebrun, juré au Tribunal révolutionnaire de Paris sur le procès de Danton et sur Fouquier-Tinville (1875) page 19, according to which Danton during his trial would have stated: ”Billaud-Varennes doesn’t forgive me for having been my secretary.”

For Brissot and Pétion being childhood friends, see Discours de Jérôme Pétion sur l’accusation intentée contre Maximilien Robespierre (1792) page 16: ”I’ve known [Brissot] since his childhood. I’ve seen him in these moments where the soul completely shows itself.”

For Barbaroux taking an optics course under Marat, see Mémoires inédits de Charles Barbaroux, député a la Convention nationale (1822), page 57.

For Brissot and Marat’s relationship pre-revolution, see Mémoires de Brissot, volume 1, page 346-361, as well as a letter from Brissot to Marat dated June 6 1782 and a letter from Marat to Brissot dated 1783.

For Brissot’s relationship with the Rolands pre-revolution, see a letter from Brissot to M. Roland dated June 24 1787, and an undated one from Brissot to Mme Roland, as well as Mémoires de Madame Roland, volume 2, page 358.

For the relationship between Brissot, Clavière and Mirabeau, see Mémoires de Brissot, volume 2, page 23-24 and 28-33, as well as a letters from Mirabeau to Brissot dated 11 August 1783 and 15 July 1786and a letter from Brissot to Mirabeau dated July 1786.

For the relationship between Brissot and Lafayette, see a letter from Lafayette to Washington in favor of Brissot dated May 25 1788, and number 659 (May 29 1791) of Brissot’s journal Le Patriote Français: ”I saw Lafayette before the revolution.”

For the relationship between Madame de Genlis and Brissot, see Mémoires inédites de Madame la comptesse de Genlis, volume 4, page 106-110, as well as this letter dated June 1783 from Félicité Brissot to Félicité Genlis.

For Condorcet objecting to Brissot’s imprisonment in the Bastille in 1784, see Mémoires de Brissot, volume 1, page 348: ”I owed my freedom also to the warmth of a few precious friends who offered to vouch for me at the price of their own liberty; I also owed it to the almost universal outcry from men of letters, even those I scarcely knew at the time, who, convinced of the austerity of my principles and morals, denounced as slander the composition of the pamphlets attributed to me and loudly demanded the end of my captivity. Thus, not only did the friends I mentioned in these memoirs give me proof of their devotion, but I also received marks of interest from a host of other people who were then almost strangers to me, such as Condorcet, with whom I have since had so many honorable relations.”

For Brissot and Gabriel Vaugeois being college comrades, see Mémoires de Brissot, volume 1, page 34: ”I have yet not spoken of Vaugeois, he was one of my college comrades, who had de la solidité dans l’esprit and love for the sciences.”

For the relationship between Prieur de la Côte d’Or and Guyton-Morveau, see Prieur de la Côte d’Or(1946) by Georges Bouchard, page 54, 62.