f public good, and carry with him to his grave
the satisfaction of having served his country, the certainty of France
having preserved its liberty".--(Archives Nationales, C. II., 58-76.)]

[Footnote 31149: Buchez et Roux, XXXII., 360, 371. (Speech of May
7, 1794.) "Danton! the most dangerous, if he had not been the most
cowardly, of the enemies of his country.... Danton, the coldest, the
most indifferent, during his country's greatest peril."]

[Footnote 31150: Ibid., XXXIV.,--Cf. the description of him by Fievee,
who saw him in the tribune at the Jacobin Club.]

[Footnote 31151: Merlin de Thionville "A vague, painful anxiety, due to
his temperament, was the sole source of his activity."]

[Footnote 31152: Barere, "Memoires." "He wanted to rule France
influentially rather than directly."--Buchez et Roux, XIV., 188.
(Article by Marat.) During the early sessions of the Legislative
Assembly, Marat saw Robespierre on one occasion, and explained to
him his plans for exciting popular outbreaks, and for his purifying
massacres. "Robespierre listened to me with dismay, turned pale and
kept silent for some moments. This interview confirmed me in the idea I
always had of him, that he combined the enlightenment of a wise senator
with the uprightness of a genuine good man and the zeal of a true
patriot, but that he equally lacked the views and boldness of a
statesman."--Thibaudeau, "Memoires," 58.--He was the only member of the
committee of Public Safety who did not join the department missions.]

[Footnote 31153: Someone is "grandisonian" when he is like the novelist
Richardson's hero, Sir Walter Grandison, beneficient, polite and
chivalrous. (SR).]

[Footnote 31154: Buchez et Roux XX., 198. (Speech of Robespierre in the
Convention, November 5, 1792.)]

[Footnote 31155: All these statements by Robespierre are opposed to the
truth.--("Proces-verbaux des Seances de la Commune de Paris.") Sep. 1,
1792, Robespierre speaks twice at the evening session.--The testimony
of two persons, both agreeing, indicate, moreover, that he spoke at
the morning session, the names of the speakers not being given. "The
question," says Petion (Buchez et Roux, XXI., 103), "was the decree
opening the barriers." This decree is under discussion at the Commune
at the morning session of September 1: "Robespierre, on this question,
spoke in the most animated manner, wandering off in sombre flights of
imagination; he saw precipices at his feet and plots