The First French Republic 457 Suspect. Were you rich ? There was danger that the popu- lace might be corrupted by your largesses. Auri vim atque opes Flauti prificipi infensas. Suspect. Were you poor ? Ha, invincible emperor ! that man must be closely watched. No one is so enterprising as he who has nothing. Syllam i?iopem, wide praecipiia,77i audaciam. Suspect. Were you of a somber and melancholy temperament, or careless in your dress ? You were disgusted that public affairs were going so well. Suspect. If, on the other hand, a citizen indulged himself in good times and indigestion, he was but rejoicing that the emperor had had an attack of gout, which was really nothing. It was necessary to let that man know that the emperor was still in the prime of life. Reddendum pro i?itempestiva licentia moestam et funebrem noc- tem qua sentiat vivere Vitellium et imperare. Suspect. Was he virtuous and austere in his habits ? Good !• a new Brutus, who durst, by his pallid face and Jacobin peruke, to censure the curled and giddy courtier. Suspect. 1 Now the royalists need not take the trouble to inform me that this description settles nothing, and that the reign of Louis XVI resembled in no way the sway of the Caesars. If it did not resemble it, it is because with us despotism has long been lulled in the lap of its luxuries and has placed such confidence in the strength of the chains which our fathers have borne for fifteen centuries that it deemed ter- ror no longer necessary. . . . But now that the people have awakened and the sword of the republic has been drawn, let royalty once more set foot in France, and then we shall see that these pictures of tyranny so well drawn by Tacitus will prove the living image of what we shall have to suffer for half a century. Indeed, need we seek examples at such a distance ? The massacres of the Champ de Mars 2 and at Nancy ; the hor- rors committed by the Austrians on the frontiers, which 1 As Michelet has pointed out, this is rather a satire upon than a justification of the Reign of Terror. 2 See above, pp. 430 sq.
