Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/191

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VIII.

THE GUILLOTINED.

Dillon—Ward—O'Moran—Newton—Delany—Chambly—
Macdonald——O'Brennan—The Cemetery.

Although about a dozen men of British birth and as many more of British extraction fell victims to the guillotine, it must not be supposed that they were executed as English subjects. Little respect as the Revolution showed for international rights, it did not wantonly massacre foreigners. A fear of reprisals would alone have sufficed to deter it from this. Even Paine, had Robespierre lived long enough to behead him, would have been beheaded as a naturalised Frenchman and ex-deputy. The British victims were mostly men—alas, that we should have to add, and women—who by birth or long residence, or by service in the army, were really French citizens, and with one exception were not of high position.

The exception was General Arthur Dillon, son of the eleventh and brother of the twelfth Viscount Dillon. The Dillons had for nearly a century and a half been an amphibious family, so to speak, and