When political rivals attacked, Robespierre replied: “If someone reproaches me, I wait for him here. It is here that he must accuse me, and not in picnics, in particular societies. Is there anyone? Let him get up.” No one stood, but he was eventually forced to resign as public prosecutor, tried, and guillotined.
*si quelqu’un a des reproches à me faire, je l’attends ici, c’est iciqu’il doit m’accuser, et non dans des piques-niques, dans des sociétés particulières, y a-t-il quelqu’un ? qu’il se lève.
Featured Image: Gilles-Louis Chrétien, after Jean-Baptiste Fouquet (c.1792)
See April 2, 1792, in the Works of Maximilien Robespierre, vol. 8. Paris, French University Press