[Footnote 31111: Laréveillère-Lepeaux," Mémoires."--Barbaroux, "Mémoires," 358. (Both, after a visit to him.)] [Footnote 31112: Robespierre's devotees constantly attend at the Jacobin club and in the convention to hear him speak and applaud him, and are called, from their condition and dress, "the fat petticoats."] [Footnote 31113: Buchez et Roux, XX., 197. (Meeting of Nov. I, 1792.)--"Chronique de Paris," Nov. 9, 1792, article by Condorcet. With the keen insight of the man of the world, he saw clearly into Robespierre's character. "Robespierre preaches, Robespierre censures; he is animated, grave, melancholy, deliberately enthusiastic and systematic in his ideas, and conduct. He thunders against the rich and the great; he lives on nothing and has no physical necessities. His sole mission is to talk, and this he does almost constantly... His characteristics are not those of a religious reformer, but of the chief of a sect. He has won a reputation for austerity approaching sanctity. He jumps up on a bench and talks about God and Providence. He styles himself the friend of the poor; he attracts around him a crowd of women and 'the poor in spirit, and gravely accepts their homage and worship.... Robespierre is a priest and never will be anything else." Among Robespierre's devotees Madame de Chalabre must be mentioned, (Hamel, I., 525), a young widow (Hamel, III., 524), who offers him her hand with an income of forty thousand francs. "Thou art my supreme deity," she writes to him, "and I know no other on this earth! I regard thee as my guardian angel, and would live only under thy laws."] [Footnote 31114: Fievée, "Correspondance," (introduction).] [Footnote 31115: Report of Courtois on the papers found in Robespierre's domicile. Justificatory documents No.20, letter of the Secretary of the Committee of Surveillance of Saint Calais, Nivôse 15, year II.] [Footnote 31116: Ibid., No. 18. Letter of V--, former inspector of "droits reservés," Feb. 5, 1792.] [Footnote 31117: Ibid., No.8. Letter of P. Brincourt, Sedan, Aug.29, 1793.] [Footnote 31118: Ibid., No. I. Letter of Besson, with an address of the popular club of Menosque, Prairial 23, year II] [Footnote 31119: Ibid., No.14. Letter of D--, member of the Cordeliers Club, and former mercer, Jan.31, 1792] [Footnote 31120: Ibid., No.12. Letter by C--, Chateau Thierry, Prairial 30, year II.] [Footnote 31121: Hamel, III., 682. (Copied from Billaud-Varennes' manuscripts, in the Archives Nationales).] [Footnote 31122: Moniteur, XXII., '75. (Session of Vendémiaire i8, year III. Speech by Laignelot.) "Robespierre had all the popular clubs under his thumb."] [Footnote 31123: Garat, 85. "The most conspicuous sentiment with Robespierre, and one, indeed, of which he made no mystery, was that the defender of the people could never see amiss."--(Bailleul, quoted in Carnot's Memoirs, I. 516.) "He regarded himself as a privileged being, destined to become the people's regenerator and instructor."]