Meeting of the Minds - Robespierre (2)

During the Reign of Terror, Maximilien Robespierre was a name that sent chills down the spine. He became this sort of all-powerful being, almost inhuman. He instilled such fear & had so much power that he was looked upon as a fearsome power that could not be stopped. And with all that power and fear, Robespierre himself felt that he was nearly immortal in a sense. He felt that he held so much power that he could basically create another God, the Etre Supreme (The Supreme Being). He created the cult and the Festival that went along with it, and he went all out. He even had a special "sky-blue" coat made for the occasion of the Festival.
This sky-blue coat brings to mind something I came across while researching Robespierre. I was reading about his death by guillotine, and how he was not able to talk because he had his jaw bound shut. He had been shot in the lower jaw by a pistol, reportedly by a "gendarme" during a National Guard seizure after he was declared an outlaw of the Convention. The official story tells something like:
Robespierrre tried to speak at the National Convention on July 27, 1794, but was forced out by opponents. He was accused & declared an outlaw, and was pursued by the National Guard in their effort to protect the Convention. He was shot in the lower jaw during the fray, and he was hauled away to be executed by guillotine the next day. His jaw was bound in a dirty rag, and he never spoke another word before he died.
However, the story that I came across in The French Revolution: Complete and Unabridged by Thomas Carlyle told of someting entirely different. Carlyle claims that after Robespierre's failed speech at the Convention, he fled into another room in the convention hall. He knew it was all over for him, and so all alone in this room, he attempted to commit suicide. He failed however, much like he failed to keep his powerful position minutes earlier while giving his speech, and shot himself in the lower jaw, breaking it into splinters. Whether he "missed" due to a lack of confidence or some other reason matters not. He lay helpless as the National Guard came for him, ready to cart him off to jail in preparation for is execution. It was a man by the name of Meda who took credit for shooting Robespierre. Although few at the time actually gave him credit for doing so, the story stuck.
I have a feeling that Robespierre would be disgusted if he knew that today, everyone thought that it had been someone else who had brought him down, rather than his own doing. He was a man who did everything for himself, and thought himself all-powerful. He would never want his reputation tarnished by the fact that someone else had shot him. Personally, I think that he would rather people know that he attempted to kill himself and failed, rather than someone else succeeded in shooting him. This persona is exactly what I hope to bring with me to the Meeting of the Minds discussion in class on Tuesday.