Historica Wiki
Advertisement
Didier Paton

Didier Paton was an official of the French Republic during the French Revolution. He was best-known for writing lists of names in a book of people that were opposed to the revolution, ranging from those who planned against the government to those who merely talked poorly of it. 

Biography[]

Didier Paton 2

Didier Paton with the Templar necklace

Didier Paton 3

Paton in 1793

Didier Paton was Maximilien Robespierre's personal spy during the times of the Reign of Terror in the early 1790s. In the French Revolution, all it took was a poor opinion of the French Republic for you to be sent to the guillotine. Paton walked the streets of Paris with a book, in which he wrote the names of people that he had eavesdropped on that were opposed to Robespierre's rule. Paton's lists of names were sent to Robespierre and the people were then branded as royalists or enemies of the state and guillotined for treason. 

However, on 13 November 1793 Paton found out about the Templar Order while spying in the sewers of Paris and wrote down the names of Templars that he knew. He returned to Robespierre with the list of names and told him that many might be in the government, acting on the order's interest. Because Robespierre was secretly a Templar, he had his guards arrest Paton and deliver him to Le Grand Chatelet prison. Paton's notebook was a who's-who of the Templar Order in Paris, so Arno Dorian and other members of the Brotherhood of Paris set out to free him.

Attacking Le Grand Chatelet, they were able to slay the guards there and retrieve the key to Paton's cell. Paton gave the assassins his notebook, and they proceeded to kill all of the names on the list, weakening the Templar Order in the city. They returned to Paton, and they escorted him out of the prison alive. Paton went on to join the Assassins out of gratitude for his rescue.

Advertisement