Marat was the diseased dæmonic paralytic, who twice a day would send forth from his cellar the demand that the populace bring him the heads of five hundred aristocrats before evening, and finally, Robespierre is represented as the fanatic and tyrant who dreamed of being an absolute ruler, who had one man after the other murdered off, until the same fate finally overtook him.
Danton alone is somewhat idealized and arouses some sympathy among these pygmy souls. Above all, he is said to have been engaged in a constant struggle with Robespierre, who was like a tiger turned man.
Of course, all three are represented as dreamers, as persons with imaginative leanings, who were caught in the bloody intoxication of politics and revolution.
Yet it is perfectly apparent that no men were ever obliged to govern a country in a more difficult situation, a more terrible plight, and that no leaders ever brought any nation, under such a catastrophe of the most elementary forces, to such real successes in so short a period of time, as did the dictators of the Committee of Public Safety, first under the leadership of Danton, and then under that of Robespierre.
We shall give a few examples of Robespierre's practical policy.
Louis XVI had been obliged to appoint the Giron-
