Two First-Hand Testimonies on the Intimacy Between Robespierre and Saint-Just
Lucile Desmoulins' unsent and unfinished letter to Robespierre:
"Camille a vu naître ton orgueuil, il a pressenti la marche que tu voulois suivre; mais il s'est rappelé votre ancienne amitié, et aussi loin de l'insensibilité de ton Saint-Just que de ses basses jalousies, il a reculé devant l'idée d'accuser un ami de collège, un compagnon de ses travaux."
"Camille saw the birth of your pride, he predicted the road you would take, but he remembered your friendship, and far from the insensitivity of your Saint-Just and his base jealousies, he renounced the idea to accuse a school friend, a work companion."
Lucile didn't write "your colleague Saint-Just"; she wrote "your Saint-Just". You might say: she's just saying it this way to call him his creature or lackey. True, but look at what she says next: she talks of his base jealousies - not envy, jealousy. She implicitly compares Camille's friendship to Saint-Just's. Is that the motivation of a mere lackey?
Let's analyze another one: Jacques-Maurice Duplay's testimony when interrogated by the Thermidorians on 12 nivose Year III.
D. - N'as-tu pas connoissance que, quelques jours avant le 9 thermidor et peut-être même le 8, Barère, Collot, Billaud-Varenne et plusieurs autres membres des anciens Comités de Salut public et de Sûreté générale ont diné chez Robespierre ainé ?
R. - Non, il y avoit près de trois mois qu'ils n'y étoient venus, autant que je puis m'en rappeller.
D. - N'est-il pas vrai qu'environ à la meme époque Saint-Just et Lebas dinèrent chez ton père avec Robespierre ainé?
R. - Lebas y dinoit souvent comme ayant épousé une de mes soeurs. Saint-Just y dinoit rarement; mais il venoit fréquemment chez Robespierre et montoit dans son cabinet sans communiquer avec personne.
D. - Dans le dîner dont je te parle, n'as-tu pas entendu Saint-Just proposer à Robespierre de se réconcilicr avec quelques membres de la Convention et des Comités qui paroissoient lui étre opposés?
R. - Non. Je sais seulement qu'ils paroissoient très divisés.
Question: Are you not aware that a few days before the 9th Thermidor, perhaps even on the 8th, Barère, Collot, Billaud-Varenne, and several other members of the former Committees of Public Safety and of General Security dined with Robespierre the elder?
Answer: No; they had not been for nearly three months, so far as I can remember.
Question: Is it not true that, about the same time, Saint-Just and Lebas dined at your father's house with Robespierre the elder?
Answer: Lebas often dined there, for he had married one of my sisters. Saint-Just rarely dined there: but he frequentlv came to see Robespierre, and used to go up to his study without speaking to anybody.
Question: At the dinner of which I am speaking, did not you hear Saint-Just propose to Robespierre that he should become reconciled with some members of the Convention and the Committees who appeared to be opposed to him?
Answer: No; I only know that they seemed greatly divided.
Here we see a clear distinction between the coworkers of the Committee and the intimates of the Duplay house. Jacques-Maurice doesn't deny it, but he tries to mitigate it. Keep in mind that he was being interrogated while his entire family was imprisoned. His house was basically the inner sanctum and headquarters of the Robespierristes. Of course he has every interest in minimizing how often they dined with them, or say Le Bas was only there because he had married one of his sisters.
We know there was a stronger connection between them because Élisabeth Duplay Le Bas later tells us Saint-Just was part of their inner circle and always attended their intimate gatherings, correcting Lamartine's passage in the Histoire des Girondins:
Un très petit nombre d’amis de Robespierre et de Duplay étaient admis tour à tour dans cette intimité : les Lameth quelquefois ; Le Bas, Saint-Just, toujours ; Panis, Sergent, Coffinhal, Fouché, qu’aimait la sœur de Robespierre et que Robespierre n’aimait pas ; Taschereau, Legendre, Le Boucher, Merlin de Thionville, Couthon, Péthion (sic), Camille Desmoulins, Buonarotti (sic), patriote romain, émule du tribun Rienzi, un nommé Nicolas, imprimeur du journal et des discours de l’orateur ; un serrurier nommé Didier (sic), ami de Duplay ; quelques ouvriers assidus aux Jacobins, enfin Mme de Chalabre, femme noble et riche, enthousiaste de Robespierre, se dévouant à lui comme les veuves de Corinthe ou de Rome aux apôtres du culte nouveau, lui offrant sa fortune pour servir à la popularisation de ses idées, et captant l’amitié de la femme et des filles de Duplay pour mériter un regard de Robespierre. »
Sur le placard corrigé par la veuve et le fils de Le Bas, tous les mots en italique sont effacés et remplacés par ceux-ci : « …Les Lameth et Péthion (sic) dans les premiers temps ; assez rarement Legendre, Merlin de Thionville, Fouché, qu’aimait la sœur de Robespierre, mais que Robespierre n’aimait pas ; souvent Taschereau, Camille Desmoulins, Piault ; toujours Le Bas, Saint-Just, David, Couthon, Buonarotti (sic). »
A very small number of friends of Robespierre and Duplay were admitted in turn into this intimacy: the Lameth sometimes; Le Bas, Saint-Just, always; Panis, Sergent, Coffinhal, Fouché, whom Robespierre's sister liked and whom Robespierre did not like; Taschereau, Legendre, Le Boucher, Merlin de Thionville, Couthon, Péthion (sic), Camille Desmoulins, Buonarotti (sic), Roman patriot, emulator of the tribune Rienzi, a man named Nicolas, printer of the newspaper and of the orator's speeches; a locksmith named Didier (sic), friend of Duplay; a few workers who were regulars at the Jacobins, and finally Madame de Chalabre, a noble and wealthy woman, an enthusiast of Robespierre, devoting herself to him like the widows of Corinth or Rome to the apostles of the new cult, offering him her fortune to help popularize his ideas, and cultivating the friendship of Duplay's wife and daughters to gain Robespierre's favor.
On the proofs corrected by Le Bas's widow and son, all the words in italics were erased and replaced with these: "...The Lameth and Péthion families (sic) in the early days; rather rarely Legendre, Merlin de Thionville, Fouché, whom Robespierre's sister liked, but whom Robespierre did not; often Taschereau, Camille Desmoulins, Piault; always Le Bas, Saint-Just, David, Couthon, Buonarotti (sic)."
However, Jacques-Maurice does slip up and accidentally provides us with a very specific detail: Saint-Just went straight to Robespierre's study. He didn't have to be announced. He didn't have to greet the family or wait for permission. He moved through that house like a member of the family. He knew the way; he knew he was welcome. And let's talk of that study: it's an extremely small place to begin with, and it's basically part of Robespierre's bedroom, which is also very small. Please note that all the bedrooms are connected too, like in a shotgun house. There's no hallway: to get to the back rooms, you have to walk through the front ones. (That's also why they made a staircase to access Robespierre's room directly, otherwise people would have needed to walk through Simon's and Jacques-Maurice's.)
It's a study in name only. There's no professional distance here. That's also why access to his room was so fiercely guarded. There's no way that what was labeled as "cabinet" (study) on the plan was actually where he worked: it wouldn't even fit a desk! Antechamber is more accurate. (And we are told some of Augustin's friends from Arras reportedly slept there temporarily waiting to find their own lodgings!) Even the art piece that was used to reconstruct his room in La Terreur et la Vertu makes it look larger than it actually was:
They could be meeting only at the Pavillion de Flore, where Barère tells us they reportedly had a private office. That would be much less cramped. But, no, this is where they chose to hang out to discuss their dreams on the future Republic. In a small room with low ceilings and a bed in the corner. No wonder Barère comments on their secret intimacy, or how a writer talks of them living in familiarity. (More on that in a different post.)
This kind of proximity, familiarity and intimacy is also completely in line with Saint-Just's concept of the "Community of Affections" - this is what the Duplay house was a perfect model of to him. The Duplay house wasn't just a place to stay. In my studies, I've seen that this was the experimental space for the world he sought to build based on horizontal brotherhood. (I can explain that more in-depth in another post too.)
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