of a sect. He has
won a reputation for austerity approaching sanctity. He jumps up on a
bench and talks about God and Providence. He styles himself the friend
of the poor; he attracts around him a crowd of women and 'the poor in
spirit, and gravely accepts their homage and worship.... Robespierre is
a priest and never will be anything else." Among Robespierre's devotees
Madame de Chalabre must be mentioned, (Hamel, I., 525), a young widow
(Hamel, III., 524), who offers him her hand with an income of forty
thousand francs. "Thou art my supreme deity," she writes to him, "and
I know no other on this earth! I regard thee as my guardian angel, and
would live only under thy laws."]

[Footnote 31114: Fievee, "Correspondance," (introduction).]

[Footnote 31115: Report of Courtois on the papers found in Robespierre's
domicile. Justificatory documents No.20, letter of the Secretary of the
Committee of Surveillance of Saint Calais, Nivose 15, year II.]

[Footnote 31116: Ibid., No. 18. Letter of V--, former inspector of
"droits reserves," Feb. 5, 1792.]

[Footnote 31117: Ibid., No.8. Letter of P. Brincourt, Sedan, Aug.29,
1793.]

[Footnote 31118: Ibid., No. I. Letter of Besson, with an address of the
popular club of Menosque, Prairial 23, year II]

[Footnote 31119: Ibid., No.14. Letter of D--, member of the Cordeliers
Club, and former mercer, Jan.31, 1792]

[Footnote 31120: Ibid., No.12. Letter by C--, Chateau Thierry, Prairial
30, year II.]

[Footnote 31121: Hamel, III., 682. (Copied from Billaud-Varennes'
manuscripts, in the Archives Nationales).]

[Footnote 31122: Moniteur, XXII., '75. (Session of Vendemiaire i8, year
III. Speech by Laignelot.) "Robespierre had all the popular clubs under
his thumb."]

[Footnote 31123: Garat, 85. "The most conspicuous sentiment with
Robespierre, and one, indeed, of which he made no mystery, was that
the defender of the people could never see amiss."--(Bailleul, quoted in
Carnot's Memoirs, I. 516.) "He regarded himself as a privileged being,
destined to become the people's regenerator and instructor."]

[Footnote 31124: Speech of May 16, 1794, and of Thermidor 8, year II.]

[Footnote 31125: Buchez et Roux, X., 295, 296. (Session June 22, 1791,
of the Jacobin Club.)--Ibid., 294.--Marat spoke in the same vein: "I
have made myself a curse for all good people in France." He writes, the
same date: "Writers in behalf of the people will be dragged to dungeons.
'The friend of the people,