748 



ROBIN HOOD 



gift of fluent, if vague mill windy, oratory made an 

 admirable cover for tin- truculent designs ( strung 

 and eompli-ii-U unscrupulous men like Hillaud- 

 Vaicnncs and t'ollot d'Herboia, and at least it is 

 certainly the cose that < 'million and Snim .lu-t 

 were ill'' only mcmlx-i- w hose political and social 

 idrals coincided with his o\vn. Di-siitute of 

 political intuition, without foresight or sagaciu, 

 himself the mere du|>e of a few IHH rowed jmroses, 

 lie was stroii;,' lx>caiise within liis narrow limits he 

 wa honest, and liecause he actually had a horizon 

 of social ideals, not nakedly identical with his own 

 advantage. He was astute enough, moreover, to 

 play off one force against another tlie Conven- 

 tion, the Commune, and the Committee, while lie 

 derived his strength from the constant worship of 

 the Club. 



The next scenes in the great drama of Revolu- 

 tion were the dark intrigues and desperate 

 struggles that sent Hel>crt anil his friends to the 

 scaffold on the 24th March 1794, and Danton and 

 Roltespierre's school-fellow, ('amille Desmoulins, on 

 the 5th of April after. Ilclx-rt Holx-spierre hail 

 long disliked, anil ('hauinette's crazy deification of 

 the Goddess of Reason had lilli'd him with disgust; 

 Danton he at once hated and feared with that 

 fierce and spiteful hatred lie ever felt instinctively 

 for men like the great Trilmne and Vergniaud witli 

 natural gifts Ix-yond his own. 'Robespierre will 

 follow me: I drag down Rolxwpierre,' saiil Danton 

 with prophetic truth. The next three months he 

 reigned supreme, hut his supremacy prepared the 

 way for his inevitable fall. He nominated all the 

 UK-HI IM-I> of the Government Committees, placed 

 his creatures in all places of influence in the com- 

 mune of Paris, sent his henchman Saint-Just on 

 a mission to the armies on the frontier, assumed 

 supn-nie control of the Revolutionary Tribunal, 

 ami completely revolutionised ite method of o|iera- 

 tion by the atrocious measure introduced by his 

 creature Coiithon on the 22d Priariul (10th June), 

 to the effect that neither counsel nor witnesses 

 need be heard if the jury had come otherwise to 

 a conclusion. The fatal significance of this change 

 a complete abrogation of all law is seen in the 

 fact that from this time till the day of Robespierre's 

 death the daily tale of victims of the guillotine 

 averaged almost thirty. Hut, in accordance with 

 the law that governs all human things, as Robes- 

 pierre's power increased his popularity decreased, 

 and still further he had committed the fatal folly 

 of making himself publicly ridiculous. Already 

 his voluntary liodyguard of T/>/>i'-iinr.t had excited 

 derision and resentment, but his declaration on 

 7th May of a new religion for the state the founda- 

 tion of a new regime of public morality awakened 

 in the mind of Paris the slumbering sense of humour. 

 The Convention at Roliespierre 'H instance agreed 

 to compliment tin- Supreme Being with an acknow- 

 ledgment of His existence and themselves with the 

 Consolatory Principle of the Immortality of the 

 Soul, to l>e celebrated in thirty-six annual festivals. 

 The first of these was held 'on the 8th of June, 

 when Roliespierre, glorious in a new violet-blue 

 coat, walked in front of the procession and delivered 

 his soul of a vapid harangue, and set fire to paste- 

 board figures representing Atheism, Selfishness, 

 Annihilation, ('rime, and \ ice. An old madwoman 

 named Catherine Theot, who thought herself the 

 mother of God, now declared Roliespierre to be the 

 new divine Saviour of the world, and drew down 

 upon him still further ridicule in the Convention. 

 Meantime the pace of tlie guillotine grew 1 

 although apparently RolH'sniei re hoped to bring 

 it to a close as soon as all his more dangerous 

 enemies, like Tallii-n, Kouchc, and Vadier, were 

 cut oil. Meantime the public finance and the 

 work of government generally drifted to ruin, and 



Saint-Just openly demanded the creation of a 

 Dictatorship in the pel son of Roliespierre as alone 

 possessing intellect, energy, patriotism, and re- 

 volutionaiy experience enough. On the '2Cth July 

 (Mli Thermidor), after about a month's absence, 

 the Dictator delivered a long harangue complain- 

 ing that be was being accused of crimes unjustly. 

 He was listened to in deep and unsympathetic 

 silence, and the Convention, after at first obediently 

 pawing his decrees, next rescinded them and re- 

 ferred his proposals to the committees, and the 

 sitting ended without anything Ix-ing concluded. 

 That night at the Jacobin Club his patty again 

 triumphed, and the Tallien (tarty in despair hurried 

 to the member* of the Right, the Girondist remnant. 

 and implored their help against the common enemy 

 at this desperate juncture, Next day at the Con- 

 vention Saint-Just could not obtain a hearing. 

 Tallien, Rillaud-Varennes, and Vadier vehemently 

 attacked Robespierre, and the voice of the Dictator 

 himself was drowned with cries of ' Down with the 

 tyrant!' Turning to the Right, '1 appeal to you 

 whose hands are clean,' he cried, but the Right sat 

 in stony silence. ' President of Assassins, I demand 

 to be heard,' he cried, but his voice died down in his 

 throat. 'The blood of Danton choke* him, 'cried 

 Gamier. An unknown deputy named Louchet 

 proposed that Robespierre should \>e arrested, and 

 at the fatal words his power crumbled into ruins. 

 His younger brother and Lebas demanded to be 

 included in the honourable sentence. Vain attempts 

 were made by the Jacobin Club and the Commune 

 to save their hero, but Paris refused to move, and 

 even Henriot's artillerymen to obey. Robespierre 

 broke his arrest and flew to the Common Hall, 

 whereupon the Convention at once declared him 

 out of the law. The National Guard under Barras 

 turned out to protect the Convention, and I'olx'- 

 spierre had his lower jaw broken by a shot tired 

 by a gendarme named Simla, or, as many Ix^lieved, 

 by his own hand. Next day (2Sth July ; 10th Tlier- 

 midor 1794), still in his sky-blue coat, the miserable, 

 trembling wretch died with Saint-Just, Couthon, 

 and nineteen others by the guillotine ; the day after 

 seventy-one members of the municipality followed, 

 twelve more on the third day, and the llcign of 

 Terror was extinguished in a sea of blood. 



See the histories of the Revolution by Lanmrtine, 

 Michelet, Louis Blanc, Carlyle, Von Sybel, H. Morse 

 Stephens, and M. Taine; the I .if.- by G. H. Lewen 

 (1849); and especially Ernest Hium-lV exhaustive and 

 authoritative, although vastly over-eulogistic, Vie tie 

 Robttpierrc (3 vols. 1865-07), also his TAcrmidor (1891). 



Robin. See REDBREAST. The American Robin 

 is a Thrush (q.v.) the Tiirdus migratorius ; and 

 the name of Golden Robin is sometimes given to 

 the Baltimore Bird (q.v.). 



Robin Goodfollow. See PUCK. 



Robin Hood, the hero of a group of old Eng- 

 lish ballads, represented as an outlaw ami a rohlier, 

 bat of a gallant and generous nature, w hose familiar 

 haunts are the forests of Sherwood and Barnsdale, 

 where he fleets the time carelessly in the merry 

 greenwood. He is ever genial and good-natured, 

 religious, respectful to the Virgin and to all women 

 for her sake, with a kind of gracious and noble 

 dignity in his liearing. He lives by the king's 

 deer, although personally most loyal, and \\ 



ceaseless \\.-.ilai all pioml liishops, abbots, ami 



knights, taking of their superfluity, and giving 

 liheiallv to the poor and to all honest men in dis- 

 ticss, of whatever degree. He is unrivalled with 

 the bow and quarter-staff ; but in as many as eight 

 of the extant ballads comes off the worse in the 

 combat with some stout fellow, whom he there- 

 upon induces to join his company. His chief com- 

 rades are Little John, Scathlok (Scarlet), and 



