On the ninth Thermidor this
scheme was to be carried out; on the ninth Thermidor, Tallien was to
thunder forth the accusation against Robespierre and move his
punishment!
This enterprise, however, seemed a folly, an impossibility, for at
this time Robespierre was at the height of his power, and fear
weighed upon the whole republic as a universal agony. No one dared
oppose Robespierre, for a look from his eye, a sign from his hand
sufficed to bring death, to lead to the scaffold.
The calm, peaceful, and united republic for which Robespierre had
toiled, which had been the ultimate end of his bloodthirstiness, was
at last there, but this republic was built upon corpses, was
baptized with streams of blood and tears. And now that the republic
had given up all opposition, now that she bowed, trembling under the
hand of her conqueror, now, Robespierre wanted to make her happy, he
wanted to give her what the storms of past years had ravished from
her--he wanted to give the republic a God! On the tribune of the
Convention, on this tribune which was his throne, rose Robespierre,
to tell with grave dignity to the republic that there was a Supreme
Being, that the soul of man was immortal.
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