JULIA KRISTEVA
99
After the events of May 31 st involving a conflict between the Na–
tional Convention and the Paris Commune, the representatives of the
Committee on Public Safety asked that the road to Paris be blocked and
suspects be arrested. The National Convention declared: "Foreigners
originally from those countries with which the Republic is at war and
who had no domicile in France prior to July 14, 1789, will be arrested
at once and seals placed on their papers, crates, and belongings." Many
foreigners were imprisoned in town houses and requisitioned state build–
ings. It was proposed that "hospitality certificates" be created, which
would be given by municipalities to those foreigners having successfully
passed the "civics examination"; they would then wear an armband
bearing the name of their country of origin and the word "hospitality."
Fabre d'Eglantine laid stress on having all foreigners in France arrested
and their possessions confiscated to the benefit of the Republic. A
Hebertist asked, to no avail, that an exception be made for political im–
migrants who had come to defend the cause of liberty.
Two parties appeared to be forming: the Dantonists, who favored
increasing harshness in the treatment of foreigners but were in favor of
peace; and the Hebertists, who defended the immigrant patriots but
pressed for an uncompromising war against Europe. Fabre d'Eglantine
was particularly conspicuous in denouncing foreign plots. Franr,::ois
Chabot and Claude Basire uncovered a conspiracy. Well-known
foreigners were arrested: two Germans, the financier and ex-adviser to
the Emperor of Austria Junius Frey, his brother Emmanuel, and their
secretary Diedrichsen; two bankers from Brussels, Simon and Doroy as
well as four other men who were employed by Herault de Sechelles and
found guilty of being secret agents.
One specific circumstance was injected into this foreigners hunt - a
hunt understandable in time of war. Some of the foreigners were dyed–
in-the-wool atheists and participated actively, sometimes crudely, in the
"dechristianization" drive then in progress. The reactions that their ex–
cesses could not fail to provoke led some to believe that the dechristian–
ization movement was a counter-revolutionary scheme. In similar fashion,
the ultra-revolutionary retaliations demanded by the Hebertists, the
sans–
wlotte
followers of
Le
Pere Duchesne,
divided and decimated Republican
ranks while hampering the necessarily mediatory role of the government.
"We know of only one way to stop the evil, and that is to sacrifice
without pity, on the tomb of the tyrant, all who regret tyranny, all who
would be interested in avenging it, all who might have it come to life
again among us," Saint-Just asserted in one of those well-turned and
contradictory sentences that can lead people to make strange amalgama–
tions. The catch-word "Amalgamate!" has been attributed to him. Ex-
