28 VOLTAIRE. 



cloud of night to his associates to say nothing of the 

 dark suspicion thrown out by the historian, that he 

 made them drink human blood mixed with their wine 

 when he swore them to the enterprise !* But the 

 speech is very fine bold, abrupt, simple, concise, emi- 

 nently calculated for the occasion : " Quin igitur, 

 expergiscemini ? En ilia, ilia quam ssepe optastis 

 libertas ! Fortuna omnia victoribus prsemia posuit: res, 

 tempus, pericula, egestas, belli spolia magnifica, magis 

 quam oratio mea vos hortentur. Vel imperatore, vel 

 milite me utimine. Neque animus, neque corpus a 

 vobis aberit." The other speech which he makes on 

 the eve of the fight is also very noble and charac- 

 teristic : " Quod si virtuti vestree fortuna inviderit, 

 cavete inulte animam amittatis ; neu capti potius sicuti 

 pecoratrucidemini, quam virorum more pugnantes,cruen- 

 tam atque luctuosam victoriam hostibus relinquatis."f 

 With such noble materials, Voltaire makes as poor a 

 speech as it was possible to manufacture as wordy 

 and unimpressive. He calls his conspirators "an 

 assemblage of the greatest of human kind ;" and that 

 being not enough, they are " conquerors of kings 

 avengers of their countrymen his true friends, his 

 equals, his supports." He tells them that " they had 

 subdued Tigranes and Mithridates, and made the 

 Euphrates red with their blood, only to make worth- 

 less senators proud, who, as a recompence, allowed the 

 conspirators to adore their persons at a distance." 

 How much finer is the simple description in Sallust ! 

 " The Patricians squander away their wealth in 



* Fuere ea tempestate qui dicerent. (Cap. xxii.) 

 f Cap. Iviii. 



