About Me
I should be a "saint" according to someone. According to others I should be a "monster". I have been a bloodythirst tyrant, a kind of protocommunist, a foolish dandy and a devoted patriot. Well: I am just the only and original Archange de la Mort *** *** ***Louis Antoine Leon Florelle Saint-Just de Richebourg*** *** *** and nobody has the right to judge me anyway. I was born on August 25, 1767, at Decize. My father was Jean de Saint Just de Richebourg, a retired French army officer, and my mother Jeanne Marie Robinot, a notary's daughter. I was raised by a nurse and my great-uncle til I was four. Then I was brought up by my parents. My father died when I was ten and my mother had to take care of me and of my two sisters, Louise and Marie. I wasn't an easy boy to get through indeed. Once I set fire to my school.... well, if I lived in your century I would be the typical kind of "Ritalin" boy ! But these crap wasn't still in use in XVIIIth century luckily so I went on giving a lot of troubles to my family...XD My mother wanted me to enter the priesthood... please try to imagine how I felt about it ! On September 14, 1786, after my girlfriend and love of my life Thérèse Gellé married Emmanuel Thorin, some kind of noob of better birth, I took an amount of my mother's silver and left home to create a more appropriate life for such a guy like me. But she found me out and had me arrested, and I was held for six months in Picpus, a correctional home for boys so imprisoned by their parents. It was all so boring there... I spent my time reflecting upon myself and the world, reading a lot of books and writing "Organt", a satyrical poem against rich aristocracy and clergy also featuring mildly pornographic scenes. When my mother and one of my sisters fell ill, I finally agreed to attend law school in accordance with my mother's wishes, so I was released. In May of 1789 I anonymously published my "Organt". Literary criticism considers this poem to be somewhat poorly written, but it was my very first step in entering the story of the French Revolution ! I was eager to take part in the turmoil that was beginning to rise within France, but I was considered to be too young. In 1791, I wrote "Esprit de la Révolution et de la Constitution de France", which sold out almost immediately. However, I was still far from the action in Paris and I couldn't stand it. I just kept on with my job as a clerk. Finally in 1792, I was elected deputy from Soissons for the National Convention, and I came to Paris where I became well-known making the famous speech calling for the death of the king. In January of 1793, I became president of the Jacobin Club. I was involved in the Committee of Public Safety and the Convention and made several speeches and reports exercizing my views. I also put forth a detailed plan for a Constitution. On July 10, I was elected to become one of the members of the Committee of Public Safety: my dream of becoming important to the Revolution had finally come true ! My best friend, Maximilien Robespierre, further aided my career. In 1793, as commissioners of the Rhine army I was sent to the front with my friend Philippe Le Bas. There we succeeded in liberating Alsace from Austrian and Prussian invaders, along with the new generals Hoche and Pichegru. I also was able to manage Alsace, which was notorious for revoluntionary opposition, without any executions. Afterwards I moved from the front to Paris, then back again, before returning to Paris once more where I was elected president of the Convention for the month of Ventôse. As president, I made several famous reports, including the famous Ventôse Decrees of February 26 and March 3, in which property was taken from alledged "enemies of the people" and redistributed among the poor. However, the most famous of my reports was perhaps the one in which I demanded the arrest of that Georges Danton, along with his supporters Camille Desmoulins, Fabre, Delacroix, and Philippeaux. I was also among the group which was responsible of the execution of followers of Jacques René Hébert, a trivial journalist who had written against the Committee of Public Safety. On March 13, 1794, I told the Convention that the Hébertistes were plotting against the Revolution.
During this time, Thérèse left her husband (it was a scandal !), asked for divorce and joined me in Paris. But I was become more rigorous with my feelings. I also was engaged to Henriette Le Bas, the younger sister of my friend Philippe. Philippe had encouraged the relationship, most likely wanting to form a tight-knit group of himself, me, Henriette, and Philippe's own wife, Elisabeth Duplay Le Bas (daughter of the Duplays with whom Robespierre lived). But I wasn't really in love with that pretty girl and this engagement was soon broken off. Le Bas got very angry because of this and the rift between us never healed. After Danton's death and the termination of my engagement, I returned to the front for the last time, a trip broken by my brief return to Paris upon Robespierre's request. I returned to Paris for good suddenly. There I found Maxime ill and caught up in a conspiracy led by opposers who wanted him dead. I tried to prevent the downfall of my friend, but when I tried to speak upon his behalf in the Convention on 9 Thermidor, I was prevented. Finally I just stood by and let events take their course. I spent all the time I still had to live without saying a word. When the chaos that had ensued died down, Robespierre had been arrested, along with his younger brother Augustin, Le Bas, Couthon, and me. They would have spared me if I had only renounced to defend Maxime... After being arrested we were temporarily set free, but before we could make any real motion to save ourselves, we were once more captured. Le Bas shot himself at my feet; Augustin jumped from a window and broke off his leg; the crippled Couthon was pushed down a flight of stairs. Robespierre received a bullet to his jaw (some say he attempted suicide, others that he was shot by another). I was uninjured. Maxime was taken to the Tuileries and I accompanied him, walking beside my friend and I stayed sitting with him through the night and I cried. The next day, I was brought to the guillotine with him and the other friends. I just had a look at the Declaration of Rights of Man and said: "Well that, at least, is something I accomplished." I put a carnation in my boutenier. On my way to the scaffold I paused only to kiss Couthon and whisper goodbye to Maxime. I was the only one of the Robespierrists who was able to stand up by himself. Then it was all over ! I was 26 that day. Most historicians agree that the French Revolution as the real attempt to create a new society which was really different from that ones based on money and power died with me on that day... *** *** ***Louis Antoine Saint-Just*** *** *** (I took a survey from the beautiful site ..http://www.saint-just.net.. about me)
