1792–1793: Fact or Fantasy?

This chapter examines the controversial role of the so-called bureau d’esprit public at the ministry. Did it really exist? If so, what did it do? Who was involved? What role did it play in the deepening conflict between the Gironde and the Mountain? Were ministry funds used for one-sided propaganda in the provinces, as some claimed at the time, and historians have assumed? Surviving documents and accounts are discussed, as is the increasing hostility in certain quarters to Roland. The Louvet-Robespierre confrontation in November is seen as a key turning-point, and the minister's clumsiness in the affair of the armoire de fer, the iron safe, although helping incriminate the king, as a further bone of contention.