Mer rougie par des torrents de sang

[sibylla-oo.livejournal.com]

"Le vaisseau de la Révolution ne peut arriver à bon port que sur un mer rougie par des torrents de sang" 

Does anyone know if this quote is
1) historical of fictional (Büchner's) . If real when it was pronounced?
2) If it's real, is it Saint-Just's or Barère's?

"Une nation ne se regénère que sur des monceaux de cadavre."
And what about his one? Is its only source a Thermidorian satirical play, again? The one in which it's attributed, as maelicia has found out, to a mysterious friend of Saint-Just?

Because it is often attributed to Saint-Just, too. It's astonishing; as if Saint-Just hadn't left to posterity enough gory quotes, the anti-revolutionary propagandists must invent new ones :D

Well, that's not serious historiography at all. According to George Henry Lewes, Vilate contributes the first quote to Barère and the second one to Saint-Just and they are supposed to have said it at a private dinner during Marie-Antoinette's process. Has anyone read Vilate? So, did Barère say his bloody quote in the Convention or at a dinner with his CPS buddies? Did he say it at all? Oh dear.



Thanks for help!

Comments

[sibylla-oo.livejournal.com]

That's what I suspected! Oh dear. I have to check Büchner, because I have discovered that people use his play as a historical source of revolutionary quotes quite often! It's quite shocking.

On English wikipedia, the quote is attributed to Saint-Just due to Stanley Loomis (Speech to the National Convention [Source: Loomis, Stanley, Paris in the Terror: June 1793 - July 1794 (Philadelphia and New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1964) p.p. 284]. Loomis, oh dear, not reliable at all.
On the other hand, a French catho anti-revolutionary website attributes it to Barère's speech on 7 April 1793. That seems more precise and verifiable. Unfortunately, I cannot verify if it's true.