HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



143 



ilobespierre. He loaded them 

 with abuse and scurrility ; charged 

 them with couuter-revolutionarv 

 projects, and flying in the face of 

 the Convention; and ordered them 

 to.. depart in silence and submissiou 

 to its decrees. Notwithstanding 

 the repeated instances of his bar- 

 barous and brutal disposition, the 

 ■adulation of his nimierpus partizans 

 and admirers extolled him as a 

 prodigy of patriotic virtue. The 

 epithet of Incorruptible was al- 

 ways annexed to his name ; he was 

 fityled the shield of the republic. 

 He was described as possessing the 

 iirmaess of a Roman, the self-de- 

 nial of a Spartan, and the eloquence 

 of an Athenian. He was compa- 

 red to the Messiah, sent by Heaven 

 to reform the world, and manifest- 

 ing his mission by miracles. These, 

 and a variety of other specimens of 

 the basest adulation that could pos- 

 sibly be thought upon by the most 

 servile and worthless miscreants of 

 the human race, were continually 

 offered up as an homage due to 

 his supereminent merit ! 



It is not surprizing that the mind. 

 of Robespierre should have been 

 inebriated by the incense of so 

 much flattery ; and that his vanity 

 should have induced hini to accept 

 it as a tribute to which he was justly 

 entitled. It was difficiilt, indeed, 

 for him to deny himself the grati- 

 fication arising from self-compla- 

 cency on such incessant invitations 

 to indulge it. Exclusively of the 

 numerous addresses pouring upon 

 him, as it were, from all quarters, 

 he seldom appeared abroad with- 

 out a crowd of dependants sQr- 

 rounding him on every side, and 

 vying with each other both in ver- 

 bal and personal demonstrations of 

 attachment. His looks were watch- 



ed, and his smiles courted like 

 those of a monarch ; and when he 

 spoke, the profoundest silence and 

 attention ensued. He wanted no- 

 thing, in short, of royalty but the 

 formalities of a court ; and those 

 were amply supplied by the sub- 

 mission and deference which he 

 cominanded,bothinprivate and pub- 

 lic. In this career of intoxication 

 he could not refrain from display- 

 ing the high opinion which he en- 

 tertained of his deserts, and of how 

 much importance he thought him- 

 self to the public. To this intent 

 he repaired to the Convention ou 

 the 27th of May, two days a&er a 

 supposed attempt against his per- 

 son, and in a set speech of some 

 ler.gth, dwelt with great fervour 

 on the services rendered to the 

 common cause by himself and his 

 friends. He thanked God that 

 these services had pointed him out 

 to tyrants as an object of their ven- 

 geance. Unable to reacli him by 

 their own prowess, they had em- 

 ployed the dagger of domestic trai- 

 tors and assassins. The French re- 

 public had now risen, he said, to 

 the summit of its glory^ Standing 

 on the brink of conspiracies ready 

 for successive explosion, the intre- 

 pid representatives of the nation 

 claimed the united attention of 

 heaven and earth ; with one hand 

 they offered up to the Almighty 

 the homage of a great people ; 

 with the other they lauiiched their 

 thunderbolts with the greatest ven- 

 geance against the tyrants that 

 were so basely, and without provo- 

 cation, coalesced against them. 



This speecii was perfectly suited 

 to the temper and taste of a French 

 audience, ever prepared to Usten 

 with applause to ideas that place 

 them at the head of all mankind ; 



and 



