This book was drafted and partially written in prison where I spent an entire year under the tyranny of the rascals governing France during the years 1793 and 1794. Many people were victims - peruke makers, pastry cooks, used-clothes dealers, cobblers, knife grinders - all of them were denounced. But they remained dignified and as a result they form a grim association of people who are able to testify of the wrongs done to them.

During the night I would write about the things that happened during the day. I slept in the morning.

"A hare in his shelter dreamt,
Indeed, why be in your shelter, unless you can dream?"

iv

To fool the prying eyes, I had fitted a heavy piece of cardboard in a niche between the marble slab of the fireplace and the chimney flue to serve as my "writing desk". My manuscript was a paper globe holding a large number of small strips which I placed on top of each other. These strips were randomly placed; all languages I spoke were used, and all with abbreviations. Often I would mix in small paper squares covered with algebraic calculations and geometric forms. This would have defied the most cunning decipherer, not so much to unravel any single strip of paper, but more to dispel the notion that there could be any coherence in all this chaos. In order to be able to reassemble this puzzle, I numbered the strips using the first nine signs of the zodiac and the Greek alpha as zero. Over time this key has allowed me to put all the pieces back in their proper order.

v

As long as we had an honest jailer, I took few precautions. However, the revolutionary committee required a scoundrel and the choice duly fell on a most atrocious individual. When this new jailer was in charge, audacious and aggressive "tigers", ex-footmen, informed on their masters and eagerly pointed out their victims for the guillotine. There were eleven such victims at the Chateau in St. Germain-en-Laye where I was confined. When this new jailer was in charge, I often had the notion to throw my paper globe into the fire. However, born fearless and reduced to bread and water (since I refused to pay the arbitrary taxes), and suffering from sciatica, I simply wasn't too attached to life.

Isaac-Mathieu was imprisoned for one year in an upper storey room
of the Chateau in St. Germain-en-Laye, a suburb of Paris

It was critical that the 'Cerberus and his flock of sheep' [Stool-pigeons: there were three of them; they spoke ill of Robespierre and the revolutionary committee, but they were pointed out to the incoming prisoners] did not become suspicious about the amount of candles I used. Therefore I made these myself with a paper mould and they provided sufficient illumination. I lived very closely with my fellow prisoners but none of them enjoyed my confidence. Some thought I was just being stingy by saving tallow while others couldn't understand how someone who practiced fine arts would choose such an unpleasant pastime as candle-making. That was my secret.

vi

One would guess that a piece of work done this way must have its defects. However, it was never my intention to write a complete history of the French Revolution. My design was more to develop a quick review of the events, like a revolving wheel, unravelling its causes and revealing its horrors while allowing the many details to simply disappear into the larger masses. After all, which author would dare try putting together all the facts relative to the overthrow of the French Empire since the legal proceedings for the Constitutional Assembly alone is a work consisting of some 68 volumes? Besides the proceedings of the Assembly, more than 200 authors would be needed to write about the riots, rebellions, fights, fires, murders, plundering, insurrections, internal party strife and external ones, and of all the atrocities that passed the unfortunate French scene in the course of the first Assembly alone. And this Assembly wasn't even the most tumultuous one, although it distilled all the poisons contained in the revolution.

vii

As I developed this project in prison I named the book: "l'Espion de la Révolution Française" [The Spy of the French Revolution] since I always employed furtive means and was incessantly concerned about the system of continual surveillance. I never had any pretensions that this work might someday be published. In fact, I swear that I was ultimately persuaded only by insistent requests from some well-informed people who found more of interest in these two small volumes than one might think.

If I had been in a position to gather materials of all kinds, I would have chosen a larger perspective. I would have observed the French armies; I would have portrayed their victories, their defeats, their conquests and their misfortunes. But how would that have been possible in prison when I knew that most of the news was revolutionary "propaganda" ["carmagnoles", an expression by Barrère - 'smoke and mirrors', lies]? Furthermore the war was initiated primarily to overturn the French monarchy and it is within this context that I have written.

viii

I decided to divide this manuscript into chapters; in the first place to check my steps and avoid going too fast, and secondly I believe these stops are agreeable to the readers. Perhaps this quick outline of the revolution may be less dry than a historical account filled with many details. Hopefully this approach will please everyone and that it may be helpful to those who want to develop a larger picture on their own.

INDEX Chapter 1

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