This page needs to be proofread.
ROBESPIERRE
HIS LAST SPEECH[1]
(1794)
The enemies of the Republic call me tyrant! Were I such they would grovel at, my feet. I should gorge them with gold, I should grant them impunity for their crimes, and they would be grateful. Were I such, the kings we have vanquished, far from denouncing Robespierre, would lend me their guilty support. There would be a covenant between them and me. Tyranny must have tools. But the enemies of tyranny — whither does their path tend? To the tomb, and to immortality! What tyrant is my protector? To what faction do I belong? Yourselves! What faction, since the beginning
- ↑ From the speech delivered in the Convention on July 26, 1794, the day before Robespierre's arrest and two days before his execution. One of the masterpieces of Robespierre. Of Robespierre as an orator, Lamartine says: "Destitute of exterior graces and of that gift of extemporaneous speaking which pours forth the unpremeditated inspirations of natural eloquence, Robespierre had taken so much pains with himself— he had meditated so much, written and erased so much; he had so often braved the inattention and the sarcasm of his audiences— that in the end he succeeded in giving warmth and suppleness to his style, and in transforming his whole person, despite his stiff and meager figure, his shrill voice and abrupt gesticulation, into an engine of eloquence, of conviction and of passion." This speech was printed by order of the Convention a few weeks after Robespierre's death, from a draft found among his papers. In the Moniteur only a brief account of it was given at the time of its delivery.
145
