Robespierre the elder believed only in himself; Robespierre
the younger believed in his brother, and his belief was fervid and
assured, as is always that of an enthusiast. To him, Maximilian appeared
to be the personification of every virtue necessary to mankind. Could
he have been made to understand the opinion which the world would form
of his brother's character, he would have thought that it was about to
be smitten with a curse of general insanity. Robespierre's vanity was
flattered by the adoration of his brother, and he loved his worshipper
sincerely. The young man was now at Lyons, propagating the doctrines of
his party; and in his letters to him, Robespierre mingled the
confidential greetings of an affectionate brother with those furious
demands for republican energy, which flooded the streets of the towns
of France with blood, and choked the rivers of France with the bodies
of the French.
"I still hope," he wrote, slowly considering the words as they fell from
his pen, "for the day when this work will have been done--for the happy
day when we shall feel that we have prevailed not only against our
enemies, but over our own vices; but my heart nearly fails me, when I
think how little we have yet effected.
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