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Rh that he was the nephew of that Damiens who assassinated Louis XV. It is but justice, on the contrary, to state that his family was both ancient and respeetable; for his progenitors had occupied some of the higher departments of the magistraey, and appertained to that class formerly termed, by way of eminence, la noblesse de la robe. His father was an advocate of great knowledge and purity; but, as economy was not among his virtues, his two sons and a daughter inherited nothing from him but his poverty. His unsullied reputation, however, proved servieeable to his family; for a relation undertook the maintenance of female, and the two boys had the good fortune to be protected, or rather adopted, by the Bishop of Arras.

Maximilian, the elder brother, was, accordingly, educated under the immediate inspection of this prelate, who, doubtless, instilled excellent prineiples into his mind; but malice, always active and always uncharitable, has traced to this very source that consummate hypoerisy which distinguished his pupil through life, and which, it is pretended, he could have only acquired under the tuition of a priest!

At a proper age, young Robespierre was sent to the college of Louis le Grand, a famous seminary, formerly under the direction of the Jesuits. There he distinguished himself by his assiduity and talents, and bore a way the annual prizes from all competitors of his own elass.

This-and it must be allowed to have been a very honourable one- was the only distinguishing characteristic of his youth; for it is allowed that he did not develope even the germ of those passions which influenced his boson in his more advaneed years, and rendered him not only the