Part 23 (2/2)
”The King, led astray by criminal suggestions, has separated himself from the National a.s.sembly. Far from being downcast over this development, our courage and that of our fellow citizens is risen to the emergency. Not a shadow of trouble, not a disordered movement, has accompanied the impression made upon us by this fact.
”A calm and determined firmness leaves us the disposition of all our forces; consecrated to the defense of a great cause, they will be victorious!
”All divisions are forgotten, all patriots are united. The National a.s.sembly--that is our guide; the Const.i.tution--that is our rallying cry.”
It would be difficult to express the surprise, the disfavor, I had almost said the sorrow, which were produced in the audience by the reading of this opiate-laden manifesto, accepted by the majority of the members of the club.
But unexpectedly Camille Desmoulins appeared on the scene. He strode toward the tribunal and demanded of the president the floor for a communication he had to make to the Jacobins. Though still a young man, Desmoulins was an influential member of the Club of the Cordeliers. His physiognomy was expressive, ironical, and finely cut. He leaped to the platform, and in his incisive voice, while sober in gesture and bearing, he let loose his biting sarcasm:
”Citizens, while the National a.s.sembly decrees--and decrees and decrees and never lets up decreeing--as much good as bad, and more bad than good--the people is acting admirably as police; and, showing itself no less a friend of provisional rule than the a.s.sembly, it has decreed that all pillagers shall be provisionally--hanged to the lamp-post. Crossing Voltaire Quay just now, I saw Lafayette preparing to review the batallions of the blue-bonnets, drawn up on the quay. Convinced of the need of uniting on one leader, I yielded to an attraction which drew me over to the famous white horse. 'Monsieur Lafayette,' I called to him, 'I have indeed said some evil of you during the year, and thought no less. Now is the time to convict me of false testimony in safeguarding public affairs!' 'I have always known you for a good citizen,' gallantly replied the General, holding out his hand to me; 'the common danger has united all parties. There is no longer in the a.s.sembly but one single spirit!'--'One single spirit! That is very few for so numerous and ill.u.s.trious an a.s.sembly,' quoth I to the General. 'But why does this single soul of the a.s.sembly affect to speak in its decrees of the _carrying off_ of the King, when the Executive writes to the a.s.sembly that no one is carrying him off at all, that he is going himself? I can pardon the lie of a servant who lies in the fear of losing his place if he tells the truth,' continued I, 'but the a.s.sembly is not, to my knowledge, the servant of the Executive, whether present or in flight.
The a.s.sembly has three million pikes and bayonets at its service.
Whence, then, comes the baseness, or the treason, which dictated to it such a vile falsehood!' '_The carrying off of the King!_ The a.s.sembly will correct that mistake in wording,' the General answered me. And he added several times, 'The conduct of the King is indeed infamous.'”
Camille Desmoulins stopped. He had seen Robespierre enter the hall, and prepared to descend from the tribunal, saying with cordial deference:
”Here is my friend and master. I yield him the floor.”
Had it not been for the certainty of hearing Robespierre, the audience would undoubtedly have insisted on the completion of the lively oration just begun. But Robespierre was one of the most esteemed orators of the Jacobin Club, a high appreciation which he merited by his great talent, his tireless energy, the loftiness of his character, his integrity, the austerity of his morals, and his devotion to the revolutionary cause.
Unhappily, that medal had a reverse: Robespierre carried his mistrust of men to an extreme; he showed himself always cold, harsh, and suspicious, to the point of committing acts of injustice towards citizens as devoted as himself to the public cause, but who had the pretension to serve it by means different from his.
The deep silence in the hall was re-established. The scattering conversation ceased. Robespierre was on the platform. His features, ordinarily impa.s.sible as a mask of marble, were now marked with a bitter irony, and he uttered his words in a voice that was at once curt, sonorous and metallic:
”It is not to me, citizens, that the flight of the first functionary of the State comes as a disastrous event. This day could be the finest day of the Revolution. It can still become so! The recovery of the forty millions which the entertainment of this royal individual costs would be the least of its blessings. But for that, citizens, other measures must be taken than those adopted by the National a.s.sembly. And I seized the moment when the session was suspended to come here to speak to you of these measures, which there they do not allow me to propose. In deserting now his post, the King has chosen the very moment when the priests are trying to raise up against the Const.i.tution all the idiots and blind-men who have survived the light of philosophy in the whole eighty-three departments of France; the moment when the Emperor of Austria and the King of Sweden are at Brussells to receive this perjured and deserting King. That does not alarm me a bit. Oh, no! Let Europe league herself against us--the Revolution will conquer Europe!
”No, I fear not the coalition of Kings,” continued Robespierre, in a tone of proud disdain. ”But do you know, fellow citizens, what frightens me? It is to hear our enemies hold the same language as we, it is to hear them exclaim like us, that we must rally to the defense of the Const.i.tution. Louis XVI does not count alone on the a.s.sistance of foreign forces to re-enter his kingdom in triumph; he counts as well on the support of a party within, which to-day wears the mask of patriotism; of that party the National a.s.sembly is the accomplice.”
This new affirmation, so clear, so precise, of the culpable conduct of the a.s.sembly excited afresh the murmurs of the Jacobins and the applause of the people. Every ear was strained to catch, with anxious impatience, the measures which Robespierre was about to announce as necessary to make this the most splendid day of the Revolution.
”What I have just said to you is the exact truth,” proceeded Robespierre solemnly. ”But could I make the National a.s.sembly listen to the truth?
No! I was not heard. Ah, I know, this denunciation is dangerous for me.
What does that matter--it is useful for the public good. This denunciation will sharpen for me a thousand poniards! I shall become an object of hatred to my colleagues of the a.s.sembly, who are nearly all counter-revolutionists--some through ignorance, others through fear, some through private reasons, others through blind confidence, others through corruption. I devote myself to hate--to death. I know it!” added Robespierre, with stoical tranquility.
”Ah! when, still unknown, I sat in the a.s.sembly, I had already made the sacrifice of my life to truth, to the country. But to-day, when I owe so much to the recognition, to the love of my friends, I accept death as a blessing. It will prevent me from witnessing inevitable evils.”
Then, overcoming his pa.s.sing emotion and returning to his natural inflexibility of bearing, he added in a voice short and firm:
”I have just held trial over the a.s.sembly; now let it hold trial over me!”
The conclusion of this discourse produced an extraordinary effect upon the audience, and when Robespierre left the platform, the Jacobins rose with one spontaneous motion. Camille Desmoulins ran to the orator, and, his face moist with tears, said to Robespierre as he clasped him in a fraternal embrace:
”We shall die with you!”
One of the striking characteristics of Robespierre's policy was never to venture a motion when its success was problematical. Hence the apparent contradiction between the beginning and the end of the address he had just delivered. He had evidently intended to advise prompt and decisive measures against the royal power and against the a.s.sembly; but, feeling the ground, and becoming a.s.sured that the measures he had to propose would meet with opposition among the Jacobins, Robespierre considered it wiser, more politic, to temporize, and to confine himself to casting suspicion upon the National a.s.sembly.
Almost as soon as Robespierre left the tribunal, there were seen to enter the hall first Danton, a man of energy and action, and then Lafayette.
The presence of these two men, personifying respectively action and reaction, revolution and counter-revolution, drew forth from the meeting an obstreperous manifestation, part acclamation, part hisses. The exteriors of these two men offered a contrast in keeping with that of their opinions.
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