Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre

Maximilien Robespierre was born in Arras, in the old French province of Artois in 1758.  His father Maximilien Barthélémy François de Robespierre like his grandfather were lawyers.  His father had married Jacqueline Marguerite Carrault, the daughter of a brewer.  He had three younger siblings Charlotte, Henriette and Augustin.  When Robespierre was six his mother died in childbirth to a fifth child who also did not survive.  His father did not attend his wife’s funeral and subsequently left Arras to return only infrequently.  He spent the remainder of his childhood being raised by his maternal grandfather and aunts.

Maximilien attended the local middle school of Arras when he was eight.  He was seen as a gifted student and was granted a modest bursary by the Abbot of Saint-Vaast to be a boarder at the prestigious Lycee Louis-le-Grand in Paris in October 1769.   It was here he would have met fellow pupils Camille Desmoulins and Stanislas Fréron.

The curriculum at the school was dominated by philosophy and logic.  He studied Classical texts ranging from Aristotle’s Ethics to Plutarch’s Parallel Lives.  There was a particular focus on the history, politics and perceived virtues of Republican and Early Empire Rome focusing on the texts of Tacitus, Livy and Sallust.  He also studied the rhetorical techniques of Cicero.  He read Jean-Jacques Rousseau during this time although his works were frowned on by the school authorities.  He claimed in a later dedication to Rousseau to have met or at least to have seen the Swiss philosopher.

It was during this time that after his coronation King Louis XVI visited Louis Le Grand.  Robespierre at this point was seventeen years old and considered a gifted student.  He was entrusted to greet the newly crowned king and queen.  Alas it was raining so the King and Queen did not descend from their carriage and soon departed leaving Robespierre kneeling in the downpour.

Robespierre was admitted to the Arras bar having completed his studies.  He made a modest income from his cases allowing him to live in humble accommodation with his sister Charlotte.   The Bishop of Arras, Louis François Marc Hilaire de Conzié, appointed him criminal judge in the Diocese of Arras in March 1782.  It was during this time that he became known for his opposition to the death penalty.  He was elected a member of the academy of Arras where Lazare Carnot, who would later become his colleague on the Committee of Public Safety also attended.

With the calling of the Estates-General Robespierre was elected fifth deputy of the Third Estate of Artois.  This would evolve swiftly into the Constituent Assembly.  He quickly established himself as a frequent speaker.  During his time at the Assembly he spoke out for the rights of jews, men of colour and slaves being given the vote.  He urged the ending of the: church hierarchy, royal veto and distinction between passive and active citizens.

He was one of the first members of the Breton Club (initially although  very briefly a society purely for members from Brittany) which became the Jacobin Club after the Assembly moved to Paris.  His position with the Jacobins would become more advanced as the wealthier bourgeois elements left to form the Feuillants left in 1791.    His standing was further enhanced amongst his fellow Jacobins when his motion that deputies who served in the Constituent Assembly were not eligible for the legislative was carried despite this barring himself.  It is perhaps unsurprising that the people of Paris.  With the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the people of Paris named Pétion and Robespierre as the “two incorruptible patriots” to honour his adherence to his principles.

In response to the royals flight to Varennes on the 20th June Robespierre declared at the Jacobin Club to be "ni monarchiste ni républicain" ("neither monarchist nor republican").  In the wake of increasing tension throughout Europe Robespierre spoke out against the demands from Brissot of the Girondist Party to declare war against France. Robespierre feared the internal stability of France and the rise in power of the generals and possibly even the King himself that a war might bring.  When war was declared Robespierre pushed for the creation of people’s militia.  

His creation of the journal Le Défenseur de la Constitution enabled him to criticise Girondin leaders such as Brissot as well as demanding an end to the monarchy and seeking an audience in Paris and beyond.  This can be seen when he was elected to the Insurrectionary Commune on the 9th of August.  The subsequent assault on the Tuileries Palace by sans culottes, federes and National Guard with the intention of overthrowing of the monarchy was not directly organised by Robespierre. By the 16th August Robespierre presented a petition of the Commune to the Legislative Assembly asking for the creation of a revolutionary tribunal and a Convention chosen by universal suffrage.

The September massacres which occurred in Paris leading to the death of a thousand prisoners were not organised by Robespierre but he was also reluctant to condemn them.  Robespierre was elected first deputy for Paris to the newly formed National Convention.  Robespierre and like minded supporters took the benches high at the back of the hall, giving them the label 'the Montagnards', or 'the Mountain'; below them were the 'Manège' of the Girondists and then 'the Plain' of the independents.

The Convention declaration of a French Republic on 21st September 1792 raised questions as to the fate of the king.  Robespierre contributed little to the initial discussions as he was suffering with some form of illness.  However on 3rd December Robespierre gave a speech arguing that the King would always pose a threat to national security.  On 15 January 1793, Louis XVI was voted guilty of conspiracy and attacks upon public safety by 691 of 749 deputies.   Louis punishment was decided four days later as 387 deputies voted for death as penalty, 334 voted for detention or a conditional death penalty, and 28 abstained or were absent. Louis was executed two days later in the Place de la Révolution.

The execution of the King led to increasing tensions between the Girondists and the Jacobins.  In May 1793, Desmoulins with the backing of Robespierre and Danton published his Histoire des Brissotins an attack on Brissot and the Girondists.  With deteriorating conditions in Paris a twelve member commission was set up to address the problems of the populace.  The commission however was only populated by Girondists.  This subsequently led to Robespierre demanding an end to the corrupt deputies.  On the 2nd June 80,000 armed sans culottes surrounded the convention and 29 of the leading Girondins were arrested.

This act of street violence allowed the Jacobins to dominate the Convention however the continuing instability across France necessitated the creation of a Revolutionary. The nine (later to be twelve) member Committee of Public Safety was headed by Robespierre in July and acted as a War Cabinet.  The Committee used representatives on a mission across France to enforce Revolutionary virtues.  Robespierre emphasised the necessity of “terror”.  This “terror” was the swift and inflexible application of justice to uphold the principles of the revolution in the face of what he saw was a multi-faceted threat of counter revolutionary enemies abroad and at home.

In line with this policy in 1793–94 the Committee decided that the Hébertist party would have to be destroyed due to its influence in the Commune of Paris and its extremist views.  Hébert and nineteen of his followers were executed.  In contrast in early 1794 Robespierre’s former ally Danton angered the committee with his increasing calls for moderation seeing France becoming more stable with successes against the foreign armies.  Robespierre charge Danton in conspiring with foreign powers and he was executed along with Desmoulins.  Robespierre was not able to feel secure however as on the 23 May Cécile Renault was arrested after having approached his place of residence with two knives; she was executed one month later.   Cementing the Revolutionary Tribunal’s power was the creation of Law 22 on the 10th of June which meant that the committee did not have to see witnesses to pass a judgement on perceived enemies.

Robespierre had increasingly become concerned at dechristianisation policies and sought to instill a new spiritual movement suitable to the principles of the revolution.  On the 7th May 1794 Robespierre supported a decree in the convention making the Cult of the Supreme Being the official religion of the Republic.  A nation wide Festival of the Supreme Being was held on the 8th of June .  Robespierre who was President of the Convention that week led the procession to the Champ de Mars.  Robespierre at the height of the festivities descended from a huge cardboard and plaster mountain created by David.  Jacques-Alexis Thuriot, was heard saying, "Look at the bugger; it’s not enough for him to be master, he has to be God"

There were increasing concerns that Robespierre in the wake of the passing of Law 22 and the Festival of the Cult of Supreme Being was seeking to become a dictator.  Robespierre appeared at the Convention on 26 July (8th Thermidor, year II) and delivered a two-hour-long speech. The speech was partially a defence of his policies and actions.  However he also stressed that the threat to the revolution had not passed and that there were people in the very convention who were threats to the very principles they had fought for and he had a list of the names of the guilty.  Robespierre however refused to name who he suspected and many feared their name was on his list.

Saint-Just began to give a speech the following day in support of Robespierre. However he was only partially into his speech when Jean-Lambert Tallien interrupted him. Robespierre then attempted to secure the tribune to speak, but was shouted down, soon deputies were calling for his arrest.  As Robespierre struggled to respond one deputy shouted, "The blood of Danton chokes him!"  The convention ordered the arrest of Robespierre his brother Augustin, Couthon, Saint-Just and François Hanriot.  Chaos reigned as troops from the commune marched against the Convention while they in turn called on troops. They were rescued by Hanriot and found refuge at the Hotel de Ville.  However upon being surrounded by troops Augustin Robespierre threw himself out of a window, only to break both of his legs; Couthon was found lying at the bottom of a staircase; Le Bas committed suicide; and another radical shot himself in the head.  Robespierre apparently tried to kill himself with a pistol but managed only to shatter his lower jaw.  Robespierre was arrested and spent the night on a table in the room of the Committee of Public Safety.

On 28 July 1794, Robespierre was led to the guillotine.   As a final indignity the executioner removed the bandage that was holding Robespierre’s jaw in place causing him to scream in pain. His brother Augustin, Couthon, Saint-Just, Hanriot, and twelve other followers, among them the cobbler Antoine Simon, the jailor of Louis-Charles, Dauphin of France, were also executed.

Madame Roland in initial praise of Robespierre taken from The Memoirs of Madame Roland a Heroine of the French Revolution, Barrie & Jenkins, London (1989) p81

Robespierre’s behaviour during the sessions in my house was extraordinary.  He spoke little, sneered a great deal and threw out sarcastic asides, but never gave a straight opinion.  If there was any coherent discussion he would take pains to appear in the Assembly the following day and make use of what he had heard his friends say.  They sometimes reproached him about this.  He would excuse himself with a joke and they would overlook it as the product of an insatiable amour proper.  But it did undermine confidence.  If they wanted to follow some agreed course of action, and to allot tasks to one another in pursuit of it, they could never be sure that Robespierre would not give the game away and upset the whole thing by trying to take the credit for himself.  I thought then that Robespierre was a genuine libertarian and I attributed his faults to excessive zeal.

Chateaubriand on the National Assembly.  Taken from Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb, François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand, Penguin Classics, London (2014) p106

The evening sittings surpassed the morning sittings in violence and scandal: people speak better and more boldly by candlelight.  In the evening the Riding-hall became a veritable playhouse, in which was enacted one of the greatest dramas in the world.  The leading characters still belonged to the old order of things; their terrifying substitutes, hidden behind them, spoke little or not at all.  At the end of a stormy discussion, I saw a common looking deputy mount the tribune, a man with a grey, impassive face and neatly dressed hair, decently clad like the steward of a good house or a village notary who was careful of his appearance.  He read out a long and boring report, and nobody listened to him; I asked his name: it was Robespierre.  The men who wore shoes were ready to leave the drawing room, and already the clogs were kicking at the door.

Robespierre on equality in October 1789  taken from The French Revolution and Human Rights a brief documentary history, Bedford/St Martins, Boston, New York (1996) p83

All citizens, whoever they are, have the right to aspire to all levels of officeholding.  Nothing is more in line with your declaration of rights, according to which all privileges, all distinctions, all exceptions must disappear.  The constitution establishes that sovereignty resides in the people, in all the individuals of the people.  Each individual therefore has the right to participate in making the law which governs him and in the administration of the public good which is his own.  If not, it is not true that all men are equal in rights, that every man is a citizen.

William Short the American chargé d'affaires notes the rising star of Robespierre in March 1791.  Taken from Witnesses to the Revolution American and British Commentators in France 1788-1794, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London (1989)  p127-128

The man held of least account in the National Assembly by Mirabeau, by Lafayette, and by the Lameths and all the Orléanists faction, will soon be of the first consideration.  He is cool, measured, and resolved.  He is in his heart republican… He is a stern man, rigid in his principles, plain unaffected in his manners, no foppery in his dress, certainly above corruption, despising wealth, and with nothing of the volatility of a Frenchman in his character… as to the destruction of the monarchy, he is an honest man… he is growing every hour into consequence, and, strange to relate, the whole National Assembly hold him cheap, consider him as insignificant, and, when I mentioned to some of them my suspicions and said he would be the man of sway in a short time, and govern the million, I was laughed at.

Letters from Helen Maria Williams detailing her thoughts on the September Massacres.  Taken from Letters Written in France, Broadview Literary Texts, Ormskirk (2002) p160

At the head of this band of conspirators is Robespierre- gloomy and saturnine in his disposition, with a countenance of such dark aspect as seems the index of no ordinary guilt-fanatical and exaggerated in his avowed principles of liberty, possessing that species of eloquence which gives him power over the passions, and that cool determined temper which regulates the most ferocious designs with the most calm and temperate prudence.  His crimes do not appear to be the result of passion, but of some deep and extraordinary malignity, and he seems formed to subvert and to destroy.  “One next to him in power, and next in crime,” is Danton, who, though not inferior to his associate in vice, and superior in ability, having less self command, is consequently less dangerous.-This man, at the period of the massacres, was Minister of Justice, and, being conjured to exert his authority in putting a stop to these horrors, coolly answered, “Quand le people ont exerce leurs droits, je reprendrai les miennes” (When the people have exerted their rights, I will resume mine).

Marat, though sometimes spoken of as one of the leaders of this faction, is in reality only one of its instruments…….

This triumvirate, resembling the celebrated triumvirate of Rome in everything that bears the marks of baseness and of crimes, had associated in their guilt a number of lesser chiefs, who in their turn had enlisted others as instruments of the same horrid purpose….

Robespierre speaks at the trial of Louis XVI on  3rd December 1792.  Taken from Regicide and Revolution speeches at the trial of Louis XVI, Columbia University Press, New York (1992)  p138

The death penalty in general is a crime since, following the unchanging principles of nature, it can be justified only in those cases where it is vital to the safety of private citizens or of the public.  Public safety never calls for the death penalty against ordinary crimes because society can always prevent them by other means and render the guilty man incapable of doing further harm.  But a deposed king, in the midst of a revolution as yet unsupported by just laws; a king whose very name draws the scourge of war on the restless nation: neither prison or exile can render his existence indifferent to the public welfare.  And that cruel exception to the laws ordinarily accepted by justice can be imputed to the nature of his crimes alone.

Regretfully I speak the fatal truth- Louis must die because the nation must live.  Among a peaceful people free and respected both within and without their country, it would be possible to listen to the counsel of generosity which you are given.  But a people which is still struggling for its liberty after so much sacrifice and so many battles; a people among whom the laws are not yet inexorable save for the unfortunate; a people among whom the crimes of tyranny are a subject of dispute, such a people must wish to be avenged; and the generosity with which you are flattered would resemble more closely that of a troop of brigands dividing their spoils.

Robespierre speaks at the trial of Louis XVI on 28th December 1792.  Taken from Regicide and Revolution speeches at the trial of Louis XVI, Columbia University Press, New York (1992) p194

Citizens’ whoever you are, set up a watch around the Temple; arrest, if it is necessary, perfidious malevolence, even deceived patriotism, and confound the plots of our enemies.  Fateful place! Was it not enough that the despotism of the tyrant weighed so long on this immortal city? Must his very safekeeping be a new calamity for it? Is the trial to be eternal so as to perpetuate the means of slandering the people who took him from the throne?

I have proven that the proposal to submit the question of Louis to the primary assemblies would lead to civil war.  If I cannot contribute to the salvation of my country, I wish at least to be recorded, at this moment for the attempt I have made you warn you of the calamities which threaten it.  I ask that the National Convention declare Louis guilty and worthy of death.

Barère on the rise of Robespierre and his entry to the Committee of Public Safety.  Taken from Memoirs of Bertrand Barère Volume 2, H. S. Nichols, London (1896) p96-97

About this time Robespierre felt his ambition growing, and he thought that the moment had come to employ his influence and take part in the government. He took steps with certain members of the committee and the Convention, asking them to show a desire that he, Robespierre, should become a member of the Committee of Public Safety. He told the Jacobins it would be useful to observe the work and conduct of the members of the committee, and he told the members of the Convention that there would be more harmony between the Convention and the committee if he entered it. Several deputies spoke to me about it, and the proposal was made to the committee by Couthon and Saint-Just. To ask was to obtain, for a refusal would have been a sort of accusation, and it was necessary to avoid any split during that winter which was inaugurated in such a sinister manner. The committee agreed to his admission, and Robespierre was proposed.

Hardly had he entered when rigorous measures became the order of the day, and time was devoted to proceeding with the charge against the deputies who had been arrested on the 31st of May. In this the Committee of Public Safety took no part. But Robespierre, having become one of its members, proceeded to excite the zeal and even to assist the operations of the Committee of General Surety, a body entirely distinct from the Committee of Public Safety, and alone charged with the execution of the decrees of arrest, and with bringing before the judicature all that related to the law of suspects. Consequently, arbitrary arrests speedily increased in the environs of Paris, in the castles and country houses, principally within a radius of ten or twelve leagues from the capital.

Gouverneur Morris comments on the crushing of the Dantonists and Hébertists.  Taken from Witnesses to the Revolution American and British Commentators in France 1788-1794, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London (1989) p190

Both the Dantonists and Hébertists are crushed.  The fall of Danton seems to terminate the idea of a triumvirate.  The chief who would in such case have been one of his colleagues has wisely put out of the way a dangerous competitor…. It is a wonderful thing sir that four years of convulsion among four and twenty millions of people has brought forth no one, either in civil or military life, whose head would fit the cap which fortune has woven.  Robespierre has been the most consistent.

Letters from Helen Maria Williams on the Cult of the Supreme Being.  Taken from Letters Written in France, Broadview Literary Texts, Ormskirk (2002) p174-175

But let us leave martyrs of liberty; and return to the polluted festival instituted by a tyrant.  David ever ready to fulfil the mandates of his master Robespierre, steps forth, marshals the procession, and, like the herald in Othello, “orders every man to put himself into triumph.”

At this spot, by David’s command, the mothers are to embrace their daughters-at that, the fathers are to clasp their son-here, the old are to bless the young, and there, the young are to kneel to the old-upon this boulevard the people are to sing- upon that, they must dance- at noon they must listen in silence, and at sun-set they must rend the air with acclamations.

Ah, what was then become of those civic festivals which hailed the first glories of the revolution! What was become of that sublime federation of an assembled nation which had nobly shaken off its ignominious fetters, and exulted in its new-born freedom!  What has become of those moments when no emotion were pre-ordained, no feelings measured out, no acclamation decreed; but when every bosom beat high with admiration, when every eye melted into tears, and the vault of heaven resounded with bursts of unpremeditated applause!

Barère on the events of Thermidor.  Taken from Memoirs of Bertrand Barère Volume 2, H. S. Nichols, London (1896) p179-181

Saint-Just came stealthily to the tribune and read a speech to the Convention, in which he had the cowardice to attack the members of the committee in their absence, without any of the members being forewarned of the denunciation to reply to it. Tallien interrupted the speech for a moment, the only service he did that day, for which he vidshed to assign to himself all the honours. Robespierre, more curled and powdered than usual, is in his place near the tribune. He watches the effect the discourse is to produce. When Saint-Just denounces the opinions and works of the committee, the astonishment and indignation caused by so much cowardice and injustice produce murmurs in the Assembly. Tallien—who knows perfectly that he is one of the eighteen proscribed deputies, whose accusation is to be discussed on that day after the attack directed against the committee, which defended the lives of these eighteen deputies — with equal ingenuity and courage, profits by the first moment of public disapprobation to complain that Saint-Just is attacking the members of the committee in their absence, and demands that the speech be suspended till they be warned to come into the Assembly at once.That was the only thing Tallien did on the 9th of Thermidor. This simple fact was then too well known to the public to attribute to him the great influence which the agents of Coblenz and his contra- revolutionary friends have sought to give him since.

After the usher of the Convention had informed us, we all went to the meeting. I was by no means the last. I was asked to combat these ambitious dictators. On entering the hall I obtain permission to speak on measures of general safety. Saint-Just wishes to submit his discourse to the committee, but several deputies demanded the continuation of the reading, and afterwards that it be signed by its author, and deposited on the table to be a part of the minutes. After these preliminaries I mount the tribune. I was going to present the decree on the armed force of the sections when Robespierre ran and stood at my side, politely asking to speak to what was called the centre of the Assembly. He counted on this majority, which has always been a great force in number and inertia. This time the immobility of this quarter showed me that they were observant, awaiting the manifestation of the Assembly and of the galleries which had been crowded from five o'clock that morning. There were murmurs and signs of approbation, but their cause was unknown. They seemed to wish for order, and to depend on some object or individual. These great assemblies must be seen when agitated by unusual events or by strong passions to get an idea of the fluctuation of opinions and versatility of wishes. At last, in this tumultuous uncertainty, several cried out, "Down with the tyrant ! Hear Barere!" These cries, instead of hushing the tumult, increased it. At last I got a hearing. They show that the accusation of tyranny struck the head of Robespierre, and that I got a hearing by a unanimous and contrary sentiment….

Robespierre, hat in hand, again addresses the Assembly from the bar in front of the tribune, and begs to be heard before the reporter of the committee begins to speak. The cries, " Down with the tyrant ! Let Barere speak ! " …. Whilst I was speaking, my brother, who was behind the president's chair, observed Robespierre's movements. He was always agitated in the tribune. My brother and his neighbours feared that he would attempt to take my life, so violent was his fit of anger and convulsion….. This man was barbarous with the sword of the law or the iron of the revolution, but not man to man. I continued my reports, and Robespierre stayed in the tribune. He still hoped to get a hearing. A part of the Assembly was still doubtful. I was always reheard. Then I presented this proclamation….

Scarcely was the decree of proclamation voted, when a crowd demanded Robespierre's impeachment, and his descent to the bar for self-defence ; others wanted his arrest. These two motions suddenly changed the indifference of the centre into a movement conformable to that of the upper benches of the Mountain. Then I saw Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint-Just beaten. Public opinion abandoned them. They were arrested and impeached. The Assembly, astonished or perhaps frightened at its own courage and decrees, separated at five o'clock, adjourning till nine in the evening.

Germaine De Staël on the fall of Robespierre.  Taken from Considerations on the Principle events of the French Revolution, Germaine De Staël, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis (2008) p371

Had a division not taken place among the deputies of the Convention themselves, it is impossible to say how long the atrocious government of the Committee of Public Safety would have lasted.

This Committee was not composed of men of superior talent; the machine of terror, the springs of which had been prepared for action by events, exercised alone unbounded power. The government resembled the hideous instrument employed on the scaffold; the axe was seen rather than the hand which put it in motion.  A single question was sufficient to overturn the power of these men; it was – how many are they? But their force was measured by the atrocity of their crimes, and nobody dared attack them.  These twelve members of the Committee of Public Safety distrusted one another, as the Convention distrusted them, and they distrusted it; as the army, the people, and the partisans of the revolution were all mutually filled with alarm.  No name of this epoch will remain, except Robespierre.

Yet he was neither more able nor more eloquent than the rest; but his political fanaticism had a character of calmness and austerity which made him feared by all his colleagues…

Danton was factious, Robespierre was hypocritical: Danton was fond of pleasure, Robespierre only of power; he sent to the scaffold some as counter-revolutionists, others as ultrarevolutionists.  There was something mysterious in his manner which caused an unknown terror to hover about in the midst of the ostensible terror which the government proclaimed.  He never adopted the means of popularity then generally in use; he was not ill dressed, on the contrary, he was the only person who wore powder in his hair; his clothes were neat, and his countenance had nothing familiar.  The desire of ruling carried him, without doubt, to distinguish himself from others at the very moment when equality in everything was desired.  Traces of a secret design are also perceived in the confusing discourses which he made in the Convention, and which, in some respects, recall to our recollection those of Cromwell.  It is rarely, indeed, that anyone who is not a military chief can become dictator.  But the civil power had then much more influence than the military: the republican spirit led to a distrust of all the victorious generals; the soldiers themselves delivered up their leaders as soon as the least alarm with respect to their fidelity arose. Political dogmas, if the name can be applied to such wanderings of intellect, reigned at the time, and not men.  Something abstract was wanted in authority, that everybody might be thought to have a share in it.  Robespierre had acquired the reputation of high democratical virtue, and was believed incapable of personal views: as soon as he was suspected, his power was at an end.

Letters from Helen Maria Williams on Robespierre.  Taken from Letters Written in France, Broadview Literary Texts, Ormskirk(2002) p179

Paris once more reassumes a gay aspect, the poor again have bread, and the rich again display the appendages of wealth.  The processions of death which once darkened the streets, are now succeeded by carriages elegant in simplicity, though not decorated with the blazonry of arms, or the lace of liveries.  The cheerfulness habitual to Parisian physiognomy, again lights up its reviving look; and the quick step, the joyous smile, the smart repartee, the airy gesture, have succeeded the dismal reserve, and the trembling circumspection which so ill-suited the national character.  With the careless simplicity of children who after the rigours of school hasten to their sports; the Parisians, shaking off the hideous remembrance of the past, fly to the scenes of pleasure……..