Robespierre needed iron nerve and determination to confront his friends, his enemies, and public opinion; and yet he sustained this struggle of a single idea against all this passion for weeks.

Great convictions are indefatigable; and Robespierre, by his own unaided exertions, balanced all France during a month.

His very enemies spoke with respect of his firmness, and those who had not the courage to follow him, yet would have been ashamed not to esteem him.

His eloquence, which had been dry, verbose, and dialectic, now became more elegant and more imposing.

The public journals printed his speeches.
"You, O people, who do not possess the means of procuring the speeches of Robespierre, I promise them to you," said the _Orateur du Peuple_, the Jacobin paper.