Part 63 (1/2)
CHAPTER x.x.xII.
AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM!
It was forty-five days after the visit of Billaud-Varenne to John Lebrenn; that is to say, it was the 8th Thermidor of the year II (July 26, 1794). Alone in his parlor, towards eight o'clock in the evening, advocate Desmarais now paced up and down in agitation, now sank pensively into a chair, his face between his hands. The anguish and terror which for two years had dogged the hypocrite's steps had completely whitened his hair. His sallow, atrabilious features disclosed the tortures of his soul. Throwing himself into the arm-chair, worn out, he muttered to himself:
”They insist upon coming! Such a session on my premises! I tremble to think of it--I may be sent to the guillotine to-morrow if Robespierre triumphs. Curses upon my wife and daughter who deserted me! Yet, a plague on my weakness, there is not a day goes by but I regret the unworthy creatures! How happy I was in my family. I loved my daughter, I love her still, as much as it is possible to love a creature on this earth. With what tenderness she would have surrounded my old age. I should have been consoled, comforted; for from my daughter I had no secrets, and her confidences gladdened my heart. My G.o.d, 'tis I that am unhappy!”
After this outburst the lawyer remained for a long time silent and dejected. Then, rising of a sudden, he shouted: ”That infamous Lebrenn!
It is he who is the cause of my woes. He came to bring trouble under my roof.”
The advocate's soliloquy was cut short by the entrance of a lackey, who announced that several citizens desired audience with him.
”Show them in,” answered the lawyer; and as the servant vanished he added, mentally: ”The devil take Fouche, who conceived the idea of choosing my house for the meeting place of his friends--a perilous honor I wish I had the power of declining.”
Soon there were introduced into the parlor the Convention members Tallien, Durand-Maillane, and Fouche; the reverend Father Morlet accompanied them. The three Representatives of the people belonged to the bloc formed against Robespierre. Durand-Maillane was a member of the Right, or royalist side of the a.s.sembly. Tallien was from the Mountain; while Fouche, an ex-monk of the Oratory, was a Terrorist. A more ign.o.ble physiognomy than Fouche's it would be impossible to imagine. It was a hang-dog face, hedged about with tow-hair, and seamed with vice, treachery, dishonesty, baseness, and cruelty unrestrained. A cynical smirk raised one corner of his thin mouth. He was the first to enter the advocate's parlor. Leading up the Jesuit Morlet, he said:
”Allow me, citizen colleague, to introduce to you a former priest, the reverend Father Morlet. He is of the Society of Jesus, as I was of the Order of the Oratory. Ca.s.sock and frock go together.”
”But,” replied the attorney, very uneasily, as he returned the Jesuit's salute, ”the object of the conference which brings us together can not be discussed before witnesses.”
”The reverend is one of us,” answered Fouche. ”He comes from London, and will give us information of the greatest importance. His head answers for his discretion; he is a dissident priest. And so, let us get to work.”
Fouche, Durand-Maillane, Tallien, Abbot Morlet and advocate Desmarais thereupon seated themselves about a round table. Desmarais was made chairman, and the conference began.
”I ask the floor,” said Durand-Maillane, ”to state the question, and to establish the conditions upon which as spokesman of the leaders of the Right, I am empowered to pledge here the a.s.sistance of my political friends, royalists, clericals, and conservatives.”
”You have the floor,” said the chairman.
Durand-Maillane continued:
”Gentlemen, none of you is unaware that in presenting the law of the 22nd Prairial to the Convention six weeks ago Robespierre hoped to obtain for the Committee of Public Safety, and under control of three of its members, the right to pa.s.s judgment upon the Representatives of the people without consulting the a.s.sembly. Whence it follows that, by means of the signatures of St. Just and Couthon, Robespierre would be able at any time to send before the revolutionary tribunal, that is to say, to the scaffold, those members of the Convention whom he wished to be rid of. The law of Prairial threatened particularly the Terrorists; its effect would soon have extended to the other parties. It is necessary that we examine and discuss the most significant pa.s.sages of Robespierre's speech to-day in the Convention, in order to decide what we are to do to temper its effect and conjure away the danger which overhangs us. Here are the particular points of the speech.”
Durand-Maillane drew a paper from his pocket and read:
”'The counter-revolution has made its appearance in all parties. The conspirators have pushed us, in spite of ourselves, _to violent measures, which their crimes alone rendered necessary_. This system is the work of the foreigners, who proposed it through the venal medium of Chabot, Lhuilier, Hebert, and a number of other scoundrels. Every effort must be made _to restore the Republic to a natural and mild rule_; this work has not yet commenced. Slacken the reins of the Revolution for a moment, and you will see military despotism seize upon it, and overturn the maligned national representation; a century of civil wars and calamities will desolate our country, and we would die for not having seized the moment marked by history for the founding of liberty. Aye, we would deliver up our country to calamities without number, and the people's maledictions will fall upon our memory, which should remain dear to the human race....
”'The conclusion is, What are we to do? Our duty! What objection can be raised to one's speaking the truth and consenting to die for it? Let it be said, then, that there is _a conspiracy against the public liberty, which owes its force to a criminal coalition that is intriguing in the very heart of the Convention_; that this coalition has accomplices in the Committee of General Surety and in the bureaus of this committee, which it dominates;--that the enemies of the Republic have set this committee up against the Committee of Public Safety, thus const.i.tuting a government within a government;--that _members of the Committee of Public Safety are in the plot_;--that the coalition thus formed is working for the destruction of patriots and of the fatherland. What is the remedy for this evil? _Punish the traitors_, reorganize the bureaus of the Committee of General Surety, purge the Committee itself, and subordinate it to the Committee of Public Safety; _purge the Committee of Public Safety itself_; establish unity of government under the supreme authority of the National Convention, which should be the center and the judge; _suppress all factions by the weight of national authority_, and rear upon their ruins the power of justice and liberty.
Such are the principles the hour demands. If it is impossible to advance them without earning the epithet Ambitious, I shall conclude that principles are outlawed, that tyranny reigns among us,--but not that I should keep quiet; for how can one object to a man who is right, and who knows how to die for his country? I am made to fight crime, not to govern it. The time is not yet come when men of worth can serve the country fearlessly. The defenders of liberty are no better than exiles, so long as there exists the horde of rogues and rascals.'
”So, gentlemen, to sum up this harangue of Robespierre's, we find out that 'it is necessary to bring back the Republic to a milder rule, to check the bloodshed, to purge the Convention and the Committees, to wipe out factions by the weight of national authority, and to combat crime, because the defenders of liberty are but exiles as long as the horde of rogues and rascals exists.' There remains no one, it seems, outside of Robespierre and the Jacobins, capable of defending, preserving and strengthening the Republic. Therefore we, royalists and clericals, have decided to form a coalition with the Terrorists and the Mountain for the purpose of sending Robespierre to the scaffold, and, along with him, the most active spirits of the Jacobin party.”
”I declare my approval of all the previous speaker has said,” observed Morlet the Jesuit. ”Robespierre is the enemy not only of us Catholics and royalists, but also of the Terrorists and Mountainists here present, and of several of their friends, who insist upon living in splendor, peace and happiness at the popular expense.”
”Robespierre to-morrow will attempt to hold a 'day,' with the support of Commandant Henriot and the Commune. His designs must be frustrated,”
added Tallien.
”The surest way of reaching our end,” Fouche advised, ”is to drown St.