good spirits, though ‘rather fatigued by the kissing.’ On 21 Sept. the abolition of royalty was decreed, and on 11 Oct. a committee was appointed to frame a constitution, which included Paine. Brissot, another member, had already become known to him in America. The king's trial was now the absorbing question. Paine published several papers on the subject. He was unable to speak French, but gave in translations of his addresses. He voted for the ‘detention of Louis during the war, and his perpetual banishment afterwards.’ He suggested that the United States might be the ‘guard and the asylum of Louis Capet, and urged, on the final vote for immediate execution, that the United States would be offended by the death of their benefactor. Paine's courage exposed him to the denunciations of Marat, but his friends, the Girondists, were not yet crushed. Paine used his influence to obtain the release of a Captain Grimston, by whom he had been struck at a restaurant; and another instance of his interference on behalf of an arrested person is told by Landor. The constitution framed by the committee was ready during the winter, but postponed by the influence of the Jacobins, and, though adopted by the convention in June, never came into operation. Paine co-operated in forming it with Condorcet, and was instructed to prepare, with Condorcet and others, an address to the people of England. The fall of the Girondins put an end to this and to Paine's influence. He had been denounced by Marat for his attempt to save the king's life, and gave some evidence at Marat's trial in April. On 20 April, during the crisis of the struggle, he wrote to Jefferson expressing despondency, and saying that he meant to return to America when the constitution was settled. Paine, however, was not personally involved in the catastrophe which befell the Girondists in June. He was greatly depressed, and for a time sought for consolation in brandy. He lodged in a house which had formerly belonged to Mme. de Pompadour, saw a few friends, and rarely visited the convention. He now occupied himself in writing his ‘Age of Reason.’ He had just finished the first part when he was arrested, 27 Dec. 1793. Mr. Conway maintains that his arrest was caused by certain intrigues of the American minister, Gouverneur Morris. Morris was hostile to the revolution, and desired to break off the French alliance for the United States. Certain American ships had been detained at Bordeaux, and when their captains appealed to Morris, he was slow to interfere in such a way as to remove their grievance. They applied to Paine, who suggested a petition to congress, which succeeded. Morris thought that Paine was intriguing against him, and intimated to a French official his objections to an influence ‘coming from the other side of the Channel.’ Shortly afterwards Paine was denounced in the convention (3 Oct.), and in December it was decreed that ‘foreigners should be excluded from public functions during the war;’ and Paine, thus excluded from the convention, was considered liable to arrest under a previous law as citizen of a country at war with France.
Some Americans resident in Paris petitioned for Paine's release, but received an evasive answer. Paine applied to Morris, who made, in consequence, a very formal and lukewarm remonstrance. Paine in vain requested a further ‘reclamation.’ He remained in prison, and Robespierre made a memorandum for his trial (Letter to Washington). He seems to have been marked for execution by the committee of public safety, during their struggle with Robespierre, and thinks that he owed his escape to a fever which made him unconscious for a month. He also says (Letter to Citizens of the United States) that a chalk-mark placed against the door of his room as a signal for the guillotine escaped notice by an accident. After the death of Robespierre, appeals were made to Merlin de Thionville by Lanthenas, who had translated the ‘Age of Reason;’ and Paine himself wrote to the committee of public safety and to the convention. Monroe had arrived in Paris as Morris's successor in August. Upon hearing of this, Paine sent him a memorial, to which Monroe replied cordially; Monroe claimed Paine as a citizen of the United States, in a letter (2 Nov. 1794) to the ‘committee of general surety,’ and Paine was immediately set free, after an imprisonment of over ten months. He had employed part of the time in the composition of the second part of the ‘Age of Reason.’
Paine became the guest of Monroe, and was restored to the convention. On 3 Jan. 1795 he was first on a list of persons recommended for pensions on account of literary services. He did not accept the offer. The convention declined to sanction a proposal from Monroe that Paine should be employed on a mission to America. He was still in bad health, but on 7 July was present at the convention, when the secretary read a speech of his protesting against the limitation of the franchise to direct taxpayers. This was also the subject of his pamphlet on ‘The first Principles of Government,’ published in July. Paine was naturally aggrieved by the neglect of the American government to interfere on his behalf. He wrote a reproachful letter to
