Editing François-Noël Babeuf (section)

=== Arrest and execution ===
Babeuf's song "Dying of Hunger, Dying of Cold" ({{lang|fr|Mourant de faim, mourant de froid}}), set to a popular tune, began to be sung in {{lang|fr|[[café]]s}}, with immense applause. Reports circulated that the disaffected troops of the [[French Revolutionary Army]] in the camp of Grenelle were ready to join an insurrection against the government. The {{lang|fr|bureau central}} had accumulated through its agents (notably ex-captain Georges Grisel, who was initiated into Babeuf’s society) evidence of a [[Conspiracy (political)|conspiracy]] (later called the [[Conspiracy of Equals]]) for an armed uprising fixed for 22 Floréal, year IV (11 May 1796),{{sfn|Phillips|1911|pp=93–94}} which involved Jacobins and leftists.

The Directory thought it time to react.{{sfn|Phillips|1911|p=93}} On 10 May Babeuf, who had taken the pseudonym ''Tissot'', was arrested. Many of his associates were gathered by the police on order from [[Lazare Carnot]]: among them were [[Augustin Alexandre Darthé]] and [[Philippe Buonarroti]], the ex-members of the [[National Convention]], [[Robert Lindet]], [[Jean-Pierre-André Amar]], [[Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier]] and [[Jean-Baptiste Drouet (French revolutionary)|Jean-Baptiste Drouet]], famous as the postmaster of [[Sainte-Menehould]] who had arrested [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]] during the latter's [[Flight to Varennes]], and now a member of the Directory's [[Council of Five Hundred]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francois-Noel-Babeuf|title=François-Noël Babeuf &#124; French political journalist}}</ref> The government crackdown was extremely successful. The last issue of the {{lang|fr|Tribun}} appeared on 24 April, although René-François Lebois in the {{lang|fr|L'Ami du peuple}} tried to incite the soldiers to revolt, and for a while there were rumours of a military uprising.{{sfn|Phillips|1911|p=94}} 

Babeuf and his accomplices were to be tried at the newly created high court at [[Vendôme]]. When the prisoners were removed from Paris on 10 and 11 Fructidor (27 August and 28 August 1796), there were tentative efforts at a riot hoping to rescue the prisoners, but these were easily suppressed. On 7 September 1796, 500 or 600 Jacobins tried to rouse the soldiers at [[Grenelle]] but also failed.{{sfn|Phillips|1911|p=94}} The trial was held at Vendôme beginning on 20 February 1797. Although several people were involved in the conspiracy, the government depicted Babeuf as the leader. On 7 Prairial (26 May 1797) Babeuf and Darthé were condemned to death; some of the prisoners, including Buonarroti, were [[Deportation|deported]]; the rest, including Vadier and his fellow-conventionals, were acquitted. Drouet managed to escape, according to [[Paul François Jean Nicolas Barras|Paul Barras]], with the connivance of the Directory. Babeuf and Darthé were [[guillotine]]d the next day at Vendôme, 8 Prairial (27 May 1797), without appeal.{{sfn|Phillips|1911|p=94}} Babeuf's body was transported and buried in a mass grave in the Vendôme's old cemetery of the Grand Faubourg, in [[Loir-et-Cher]].