On October 3rd, 1793, an arrest warrant was issued for Nicolas de Condorcet, a leader of the French Revolution, because he dared question other leaders of the French Revolution.

I mean, on all accounts Condorcet was a pretty cool dude. He had some dope theories about jury voting patterns, did some cool stuff with differential calculus, and wrote a whole essay arguing against slavery in 1785 when slavery was all the rage.

(But let’s just ignore the fact that his full name was “Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat”)

Anyway, some background: In 1789 when the French Revolution swept the nation, Condorcet was front and center with his views on reconstructing society. He was elected as a Paris representative to the Legislative Assembly, and was generally well-respected.

Condorcet, the brilliantly-naive guy that he was, proposed a new education system wherein experts would be at the top of a hierarchy that would allow them to pass their knowledge down to subordinates. Unfortunately the other Revolutionaries thought this was giving too much power to an “elite aristocracy” and promptly shot his idea down.

If you look at this guy and think “That’s definitely a ladies man” you’d be right. Condorcet wrote two essays arguing for women’s rights. Boom.

By the time Fall of 1792 came around, the French National Convention was in full effect. Condorcet didn’t like to affiliate himself directly with political parties, but all of his friends happened to be in the Girondins party, and he was the main author for their attempt at writing a constitution…so it’s safe to say he was affiliated with the Girondins.

However, when the Girondins worst enemies (i.e. their fellow Revolutionaries with slightly different ideas), the Montagnards, entered into power, they put forth their own constitution and got enough votes to pass it.

Condorcet, the crazy bastard that he was, had the gall to critique that constitution…and because of this, on October 3rd of 1793, the Montagnards issued a warrant for his arrest.

But that’s not where this story ends, folks.

Condorcet wasn’t an easy Frenchie to catch. He went into hiding at a friends house and stayed there for 5-8 months. With plenty of loyal and dedicated friends around the city, Condorcet was convinced he could find a way to escape Paris safely…boy was he wrong.

After leaving his hiding place Condorcet went to his best friend Jean-Baptiste Suard, who immediately turned him away, giving some silly excuse about how one of his tenants would turn Condorcet in to the authorities.

Our hero then spent two days out on the streets, hiding in the shadows before he was finally arrested. After being put in jail, and while waiting trial, another of Condorcet’s friends slipped him some poison so he could avoid the embarrassing trial.

Condorcet took that poison and died alone in a dark jail cell.

Those Frenchies make for great friends.

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