Chapter VII:
Constitutum est ut quisquis eum hominem, dixisset, fuisse, capitalem penderet poenam.
St. Augustine - "Of the God Serapis," l. 18, de civ. Dei, c. 5.
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Now we are getting into needless use of French. "Fauteuil"? Seriously? That's an armchair. Sure, it's a specific style of armchair, but that's not important or even relevant!
Legendre, in this context, is going to be Louis Legendre, not Adrien-Marie Legendre.
Bourreau de ton pays, lis l'arret de ton chatiment: Executioner of thy country, read the decree of thy punishment
portefeuille: portfolio (more typically a wallet, but not here). Another needless use of French for the sake of using French. Bah.
the published collection (of letters) is footnoted with: "Papiers inédits," &c., Vol II. p. 156.
dans sa derniere course: in his last round
sur le sopha de la presidence: on the sofa of the presidency
"Better to be a fisherman than to govern men" gets a footnote from the author: "Il vaudrait mieux," said Danton, in his dungeon, "être un pauvre pècheur que de gouverner les hommes."
toi qui eclaires l'univers: Thou who enlightenest the world.
Anarcharsis Clootz: Jean-Baptiste du Val-de-Grâce, baron de Cloots, a Prussian nobleman, world federalist, and international anarchist. He was executed in 1794 with other Hébertist leaders, on blatantly trumped up charges.
Regarding playing with a solitary victim, we get another footnote from the author: The most detestable anecdote of this peculiar hypocrisy in Robespierre is that in which he is recorded to have tenderly pressed the hand of his old school-friend, Camille Desmoulins, the day that he signed the warrant for his arrest.
valetudinarian: a person who is unduly anxious about their health
I really don't know who Guérin is supposed to be. I can't find any reference to a Guérin who worked for Robespierre as a spy master. There are some notable Frenchmen appropriate to this time frame with that name, such as artists like Christophe Guérin or François Guérin or Jean-Urbain Guérin or Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, but none of them have anything in their background to suggest being a spy, or even of personally knowing Robespierre at all. For all the very real historical figures Bulwer-Lytton has been particular to employ here, it is very odd for him to have a completely fictional character like that among the cast surrounding Robespierre.
The picture used is of the Triumvirate of Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint-Just, 1794. Just imagine that Saint-Just there is actually Guerin ;-)
To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2664/2664-h/2664-h.htm#link2HCH0071
