Volume I Part 6 (2/2)

[Applauses.]

[Enter LEGENDRE, a Pistol in one hand, Keys in the other.]

LEGENDRE, [flinging down the Keys.]

So--let the mutinous Jacobins meet now In the open air.

[Loud Applauses.]

A factious, turbulent party, Lording it o'er the state since Danton died, And with him the Cordeliers.--A hireling band Of loud-tongued orators controll'd the club, And bade them bow the knee to Robespierre.

Vivier has 'scap'd me. Curse his coward heart-- This fate-fraught tube of Justice in my hand, I rush'd into the hall. He mark'd mine eye, That beam'd its patriot anger, and flash'd full With death-denouncing meaning. 'Mid the throng He mingled. I pursued--but staid my hand, Lest haply I might shed the innocent blood.

[Applauses.]

FRERON.

They took from me my ticket of admission-- Expell'd me from their sittings.--Now, forsooth, Humbled and trembling re-insert my name.

But Freron enters not the club again Till it be purged of guilt--till, purified Of tyrants and of traitors, honest men May breathe the air in safety.

[Shouts from without.]

BARRERE.

What means this uproar! if the tyrant band Should gain the people once again to rise-- We are as dead!

TALLIEN.

And wherefore fear we death?

Did Brutus fear it? or the Grecian friends Who buried in Hipparchus' breast the sword, And died triumphant? Caesar should fear death, Brutus must scorn the bugbear.

[Shouts from without: Live the Convention--Down with the tyrants!]

TALLIEN.

Hark! again The sounds of honest Freedom!

[Enter DEPUTIES from the SECTIONS.]

CITIZEN.

Citizens! representatives of France!

Hold on your steady course. The men of Paris Espouse your cause. The men of Paris swear They will defend the delegates of Freedom.

TALLIEN.

Hear ye this, colleagues? hear ye this, my brethren?

And does no thrill of joy pervade your b.r.e.a.s.t.s?

My bosom bounds to rapture. I have seen The sons of France shake off the tyrant yoke; I have, as much as lies in mine own arm, Hurl'd down the usurper.--Come death when it will, I have lived long enough.

[Shouts without.]

BARRERE.

<script>