Even worse, Maximilien Robespierre, the leader of the French radicals, claimed that his group was motivated by virtue: If the basis of popular government in peacetime is virtue, the basis of popular government during a revolution is both virtue and terror; virtue, without which terror is baneful; terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue.67 This is a striking equation, insisting that terror and virtue go hand in hand.
