"That book about Le Bas" and "The Legacy of History"

I already did this a few years ago, but for the benefit of those of you who were not yet on my f-list at that point (and because I just finished typing it up in French), I'm going to repeat my earlier offer to translate any and all chapters from the index of Autour de Robespierre : Le Conventionnel Le Bas, posted here. Also, anyone who wants the whole thing (some 168 pages) in French: let me know and I'll be more than willing to email it to you.

Other than that, I have a very interesting essay that I've decided to post for you all, one section at a time at the risk of breaking copyright laws, since it was originally published in English and in recent years and I obviously haven't applied for permission. The essay is actually the seventh chapter of a book called Mourning Glory: The Will of the French Revolution, by Marie-Hélène Huet. In the first section, which I will now post, we establish Maxime's hotness.

( No, *really* )

Oh, and about this essay, two things to remember (you'll understand this if you read the passage): apparently German feet were about 11 inches or 27.5 centimetres. And read the footnotes, because some of them are more important than the main text.