undoubted; and it was a change imposed by the
will of one man, unsupported by any current of opinion.

A month later, June 8, the Feast of the Supreme Being was held with
all the solemnity of which Paris was capable. Robespierre walked in
procession from the Tuileries to the Champ de Mars, at the head of the
Convention. As the others fell back, he marched alone with his hair
powdered, a large nosegay in his hands, wearing the sky-blue coat and
nankeens by which he is remembered, for they reappeared in the crisis
of Thermidor. He had attained the loftiest summit of prosperity and
greatness that was ever given to man. Not a monarch in Europe could
compare with him in power. All that had stood in his way during the
last five years had been swept to destruction; all that survived of
the Revolution followed obedient at his heels. At the last election of
a President in the Convention there had been 117 votes; but 485 had
voted for Robespierre, that he might parade at their head that day. It
was there, in that supreme and intoxicating moment, that a gulf opened
before him, and he became aware of the extremity of his peril. For he
could hear the hostile deputies in the front rank behind him,
muttering curses and sneering at the enthusiasm with which he was
received. Those fierce proconsuls who, at Lyons, Nevers, Nantes,
Toulon, had crushed all that they were now forced to venerate by their
master, vowed vengeance for their humiliation. They said that this was
to be a starting-point for divine right, and the excuse for a new
persecution. They felt that they were forging a weapon against
themselves, and committing an act of suicide. The decree of the month
before would have involved no such dire consequences; but the
elaborate and aggressive ceremonial was felt as a declaration of war.

Experienced observers at once predicted that Robespierre would not
last long. He lost no time in devising a precaution equal to the
danger. He prepared what is known as the law of the 22nd of Prairial,
which was presented by Couthon, and carried without a division on June
10, two days after the procession. It is the most tyrannical of all
the acts of the Revolution, and is not surpassed by anything in the
records of absolute monarchy. For the decree of Prairial suppressed
the formalities of law in political trials. It was said by Couthon,
that delays may be useful where only private interests are at stake,
but there must be none where the interes