Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/127

 MIRABEAU along with him the recompense of his services, the mitigation of his pains, and the price of all his perils; such a man must expect his harvest, his destiny—the only one which interests him, the destiny of his fame—from time alone, that judge incorruptible, who renders strict justice to every one.

Let those who, for this week past, have been prophesying my opinion without knowing what it was; who at this moment are calumniating my speech without understanding it,—let them accuse me of offering incense to idols without power, at the very moment when they lie prostrate, or of being the vile stipendiary of men against whom I have indefatigably waged war. Let them arraign as an enemy to the Revolution, the man who, perhaps, has not been altogether useless to it, and who, were that Revolution unconnected with his renown, might there alone expect to find an asylum. Let them deliver up to the fury of an infatuated people the man who, for these twenty years, has been the adversary of oppression; who talked to the French of liberty, of Constitution, of resistance, when his base calumniators were at nurse in the court of despotism and suckled with the milk of overbearing prejudices. What is all this to me? This treatment, these unworthy practises, shall not arrest me in my career. I will say to my antagonists, Answer, if you are able; then calumniate, as much as you please.

I reenter the lists, then, with no armor but