became reciprocal. The family of his landlord became a second family
to Robespierre, and while they adopted his opinions, they neither lost
the simplicity of their manners nor neglected their religious
observances. They consisted of a father, mother, a son yet a youth,
and four daughters, the eldest of whom was twenty-five, and the
youngest eighteen. Familiar with the father, filial with the mother,
paternal with the son, tender and almost brotherly with the young
girls, he inspired and felt in this small domestic circle all those
sentiments that only an ardent soul inspires and feels by spreading
abroad its sympathies. Love also attached his heart, where toil,
poverty, and retirement had fixed his life. Eléonore Duplay, the
eldest daughter of his host, inspired Robespierre with a more serious
attachment than her sisters. The feeling, rather predilection than
passion, was more reasonable on the part of Robespierre, more ardent
and simple on the part of the young girl. This affection afforded him
tenderness without torment, happiness without excitement: it was the
love adapted for a man plunged all day in the agitation of public
life--a repose of the heart after mental fatigue. He and Eléonore
lived in the same house as a betrothed couple, not as lovers.
Robespierre had demanded the young girl's hand from her parents, and
they had promised it to him.

'"The total want of fortune," he said, "and the uncertainty of the
morrow, prevented him from marrying her until the destiny of France
was determined; but he only awaited the moment when the Revolution
should be concluded, in order to retire from the turmoil and strife,
marry her whom he loved, go to reside with her in Artois, on one of
the farms he had saved among the possessions of his family, and there
to mingle his obscure happiness in the common lot of his family."