Page:Works of Heinrich Heine 07.djvu/83

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
FRENCH AFFAIRS.
63

republican state forms, universal franchise, primary meetings, et cetera. It is amusing to see how these disguised priestlings now play the bully-braggart[1] in the language of Sans-culottism, how fiercely they coquet with the red Jacobin cap, yet are ever and anon afflicted with the thought that they might forgetfully have put on in its place the red cap of a prelate; they take for an instant from their heads their borrowed covering and show the tonsure unto all the world. Such men as these now believe that they may insult Lafayette, and it serves as an agreeable relaxation from the sour republicanism which they have assumed.

But let deluded friends and hypocritical enemies say what they will, Lafayette is, after Robespierre,[2] the purest character of the French Revolution, and, next to Napoleon, its most popular hero. Napoleon and Lafayette are the two names which now bloom most beautifully in France. Truly their fame is each of different kind. The latter fought for peace, not victory, the former rather for the laurel wreath than for that of oak leaves. It would indeed be ridiculous to measure the greatness of the two heroes with the same


  1. Bramarbasieren, from Bramarbas, a bully in a Danish play.
  2. These words, nächst Robespierre, are omitted in the French version, and they do not, indeed, harmonise very well with Heine's recent expressions of devotion to monarchy.—Translator.