A Place of Greater Safety

  A blank misery had dropped into his eyes. “Very well,” he said. “I can exist without his approbation.” He walked ahead of her to the door. “Good-bye, Cornélia, I don’t think I’ll be seeing much of you from now on.”

  “Why? Where are you going?”

  In the open doorway he turned suddenly: pulled her towards him, slipped a hand under her breast and kissed her on the lips. Two of the workmen stood and watched them. “Poor you,” Camille said. He pushed her gently back against the wall. Watching him go, she put the back of her hand against her lips. For the next few hours she could feel the phantom pressure of his cupped hand beneath her breast, and she kept it in her guilty thoughts that she had never really had a lover.

  A letter to Camille Desmoulins, 11 Nivôse, Year II:

  I am not a fanatic, or an enthusiast, or a man to pay compliments; but if I should survive you I mean to have your statue, and to carve on it: “Wicked men would have had us accept liberty kneaded together of mud and blood. Camille made us love it, carved in marble and covered in flowers.”

  “It isn’t true, of course,” he said to Lucile, “but I shall put it away carefully among my papers.”

  “I see you make a very splendid effort to come and speak to me,” Hérault said. “You could have turned and gone the other way. I shall begin to think I am a case for your charity, like Barnave. By the way, did you know Saint-Just is back?”

  “Oh.”

  “Perhaps there is a case for not going so far to antagonize Hébert?”

  “My fifth pamphlet is in preparation,” Camille said. “I shall rid the public of that posturing, mindless obscenity, if it’s the last thing I do.”

  “It may well be that.” Hérault smiled, but not pleasantly. “I know you enjoy a privileged position, but Robespierre doesn’t like defeat.”

  “He favors clemency. Very well, there’s been a reverse. We’ll find another way.”

  “How? I think it will seem more than a reverse to him. He has no power base, you know—except in patriotic opinion. He has very few friends. He has placed some old retainers of his on the Tribunal, but he has no ministers in his pocket, no generals—he’s neglected all that. His power is entirely in our minds—and I’m sure he knows it. If he can be defeated once, why not twice, why not continuously?”

  “Why are you trying to frighten me?”

  “For my amusement,” Hérault said coolly. “I’ve never been able to understand you, quite. You play on his feelings for you—yet he always says we should leave our personal feelings aside.”

  “Oh, we all say that. It is the only thing to be said. But we never do it.”

  “Camille, why did you do what you did?”

  “Don’t you know?”

  “I have really no idea. I suppose you wanted to be running out in front of public opinion again.”

  “Do you? Do you think that? People say it is a work of art, that I have never written anything better. Do you think I am proud of my sales?”

  “I would be, if they were mine.”

  “Yes, the pamphlets are a great success. But what does success matter to me now? I am sick of the sight of all this accumulated injustice and ingratitude and wrong.”

  A nice epitaph, Hérault thought, should you need one. “Tell Danton—for what it’s worth—and I realize that it may be a liability—the campaign for clemency has my sympathy and support.”

  “Oh, Danton and I are not on good terms.”

  Hérault frowned. “How not on good terms? Camille, what are you trying to do to yourself?”

  “Oh …” Camille said. He pushed his hair back.

  “Have you been rude about his wife again?”

  “No, not at all. Good heavens—we always leave our personal feelings aside.”

  “So what’s your quarrel? Something trivial?”

  “Everything I do is trivial,” Camille said, with a sudden savage hostility. “Don’t you see that I am a weak and trivial person? Now Hérault—is there any other message?”

  “Only that I think he’s carrying the time biding to excess.”

  “You are afraid the policy of clemency will come in too late for you?”

  “Every day it is too late for someone.”

  “He probably has good reasons. All these obscure coalitions … Fabre thinks I know everything about Georges, but I don’t. I don’t think I could take knowing everything, do you? Actually, I don’t think anyone could.”

  “Sometimes you sound exactly like Robespierre.”

  “It is long association. It is what I am counting on.”

  “I had a letter this morning,” Hérault said, “from my colleagues on the Committee. I am accused of leaking our secret proceedings to the Austrians.” His mouth twisted. “The documentary evidence will need a little addition, before it comes to court, but that will be no trouble to Saint-Just. He tried to ruin me in Alsace. I am not a stupid man, but I found it hard to keep a step ahead. Not that there was any point.”

  “It is the accident of your birth.”

  “Just so. I am on my way to tender my resignation from the Committee. You might tell Georges. Oh, and wish him a happy new year.”

  SAINT-JUST: Who is paying Camille to write this?

  ROBESPIERRE: No, no, you don’t understand. He’s been so shaken by the direction of things—

  SAINT-JUST: He’s a very good actor, I will say that for him. He seems to have taken most of you in.

  ROBESPIERRE : Why must you take everything he does in bad faith?

  SAINT-JUST: Will you face it, Robespierre? Either he’s in bad faith and he’s a counter-revolutionary, or he’s gone politically soft and he’s a counter-revolutionary.

  ROBESPIERRE: Oh that’s very neat. You weren’t here in ’89.

  SAINT-JUST: We have a new calendar now. ’89 doesn’t exist.

  ROBESPIERRE: You can’t judge Camille, because you know nothing about him.

  SAINT-JUST: His actions speak. Anyway, I’ve known Camille for years. He drifted along in life until he found a niche as a literary prostitute. He’s for sale to the highest bidder, and that’s why he and Danton have so much in common.

  ROBESPIERRE: I don’t see how you can call it literary prostitution and so on to ask for clemency.

  SAINT-JUST: No? Then can you explain why he’s the toast of every aristocrat’s dinner table for the last month? Can you explain why people like the Beauhamais woman are sending him letters of thanks and adulation? Can you explain why civil disorder has resulted?

  ROBESPIERRE: It was not civil disorder. Lawful petitioners to the Convention.

  SAINT-JUST: With his name in their mouths. He’s the hero of the hour.

  ROBESPIERRE: Well, that is the second time for him.

  SAINT-JUST: People can use such egotism for very sinister ends.

  ROBESPIERRE: Like?

  SAINT-JUST: Like conspiracy against the Republic.

  ROBESPIERRE: Who conspires? Camille conspires with no one.

  SAINT-JUST: Danton conspires. With Orléans. With Mirabeau. With Brissot. With Dumouriez, with the court, with England and with all our foreign enemies.

  ROBESPIERRE: How dare you?

  SAINT-JUST: Do you dare break with him? Bring him before the Tribunal and let him answer these charges.

  ROBESPIERRE: Take an example. He associated with Mirabeau. I suppose this is what you mean. Mirabeau fell from grace, but when Danton first knew him he was believed to be a patriot. It was not a crime to have dealings with him, and you can’t make it so, retrospectively.

  SAINT-JUST: You did not share the general blindness about Riquetti, I understand.

  ROBESPIERRE: No.

  SAINT-JUST: Surely therefore you warned Danton?

  ROBESPIERRE: He took no notice. That’s not a crime, either.

  SAINT-JUST: No? I do suspect a man who—let us say—fails to hate the Revolution’s enemies. If it was not a crime, it was something a good deal worse than carelessness. There was money involved. With Danton there alway
s is. Learn that. Accept that hard cash is the height and depth of Danton’s patriotism. Where are the Crown Jewels?

  ROBESPIERRE: Roland was responsible for them.

  SAINT-JUST: Roland is dead. You’re refusing to accept what stares you in the face. There is a conspiracy. This clemency business, it is just a device to sow dissension among the patriots and pick up some cheap good will. Pierre Philippeaux is part of the plot, with his attacks on the Committee, and Danton is at its head. Wait and see. The next issue of the “Old Cordelier” will launch the real attack on Hébert, because they have to put him out of the way before they can seize power. It will also attack the Committee. My own belief is that they are planning a military coup. They have Westermann, and Dillon too.

  ROBESPIERRE: Dillon’s been arrested again. Some business about plotting to rescue the Dauphin. Sounds unlikely to me.

  SAINT-JUST: Camille won’t be able to get him off this time. Not that the prisons are secure.

  ROBESPIERRE: Oh, the prisons! The people are saying that if the supply of meat doesn’t improve they are going to break into the prisons and roast the prisoners and eat them.

  SAINT-JUST: The people are degraded, in their present state of education.

  ROBESPIERRE: What do you expect? I had forgotten to worry about the meat supply.

  SAINT-JUST: I think you are getting off the point.

  ROBESPIERRE: Danton is a patriot. Bring me the evidence against him.

  SAINT-JUST: Robespierre, you are a very obstinate man. What kind of evidence do you want?

  ROBESPIERRE: Anyway, how do you know what letters Camille has?

  SAINT-JUST: Oh, when I was giving you the list of those with whom Danton conspired, I forgot to include Lafayette.

  ROBESPIERRE: Well, that’s just about everybody then, isn’t it?

  SAINT-JUST: Yes, I think that’s just about everybody.

  In the first week of the new year certain papers were brought to Robespierre, which proved beyond doubt Fabre’s involvement in the East India Company fraud—an affair that Fabre himself, with the cooperation of the Police Committee, had been investigating for more than two months. For half an hour Robespierre sat over the papers, shaking with humiliation and rage, fighting for control. When he heard Saint-Just’s voice, he would have liked to get out of the room; but there was only one exit.

  SAINT-JUST: What do you say now? Camille must have known something about it.

  ROBESPIERRE: He was protecting a friend. Oh, he shouldn’t have done that. He should have told me.

  SAINT-JUST: Fabre really took you in.

  ROBESPIERRE: The conspiracies he spoke of were real.

  SAINT-JUST: Oh yes. All the men he names have behaved as he predicted. What do we think of someone so close to the heart of perfidy?

  ROBESPIERRE: We know what to think now.

  SAINT-JUST: Fabre has been at Danton’s side throughout.

  ROBESPIERRE: And so?

  SAINT-JUST: Don’t show yourself more naive than you have been.

  ROBESPIERRE: I will have Fabre out of the Jacobins at the next meeting. I trusted him, and he’s made me look a fool.

  SAINT-JUST: They have all made you look a fool.

  ROBESPIERRE: I must begin to think again. I am too well disposed towards people.

  SAINT-JUST: I have a certain amount of evidence that I can put before you.

  ROBESPIERRE: I know what people call evidence these days. Hearsay and denunciation and empty rhetoric.

  SAINT-JUST: Are you determined to persist in your error?

  ROBESPIERRE: You sound like a priest, Antoine. It’s what they say when you’re at confession—do you recall? I’ve been mistaken, I agree, in my course of action. I have been looking at what people do, listening to what they say, but I should have been looking into their hearts. I am going to find out all the conspirators now.

  SAINT-JUST: Whoever they are. However great their credit in the Revolution, it must now be examined. The Revolution has got frozen up. They have frozen it up with their talk of moderation. To stand still in Revolution is to slip backwards.

  ROBESPIERRE: You are mixing your metaphors.

  SAINT-JUST: I am not a writer. I have more than phrases to offer.

  ROBESPIERRE: Back to Camille again.

  SAINT-JUST: Yes.

  ROBESPIERRE: He has been misled.

  SAINT-JUST: That is not my view, or the general view of the Committee. We believe him responsible for his actions, and we feel strongly that he should not escape what he deserves because of any personal feelings you might entertain for him.

  ROBESPIERRE: What are you accusing me of?

  SAINT-JUST: Weakness.

  ROBESPIERRE: I did not get where I am through weakness.

  SAINT-JUST: Remind us of it.

  ROBESPIERRE: His conduct will be investigated, just as if he were anyone else. He is only an individual … . Oh my God, how I hoped to avoid this.

  The fifth issue of the “Old Cordelier” appeared on January 5, 16 Nivôse. It attacked Hébert and his faction, compared his writings (unfavorably) to an open sewer, accused him of corruption and of complicity with the enemy. It attacked Barère and Collot, members of the Committee of Public Safety.

  Proceedings of the Jacobin Club (1):

  CITIZEN COLLOT [at the tribune]: Philippeaux and Camille Desmoulins—

  CITIZEN HÉBERT: Justice! I demand a hearing!

  PRESIDENT: Order! I put it to the meeting that the fifth issue should be read out.

  JACOBIN: We have all read it.

  JACOBIN: I should be ashamed to admit that I had read an aristo pamphlet.

  JACOBIN: Hébert does not want it read, he does not want the truth given wider currency.

  CITIZEN HÉBERT: No, no, by no means should it be read out! Camille is trying to complicate everything. He is trying to divert attention from himself. He is accusing me of stealing public funds, and it is completely false.

  CITIZEN DESMOULINS: I have the proofs of it here in my hand.

  CITIZEN -EBERT: Oh God! He wants to assassinate me!

  Proceedings of the Jacobin Club (2):

  PRESIDENT: We are calling on Camille Desmoulins to justify his conduct.

  JACOBIN: He’s not here.

  JACOBIN: To Robespierre’s relief.

  PRESIDENT: I am going to call his name three times, so that he has the opportunity to come forward and justify himself before the Society.

  JACOBIN: It is a pity he has not got a cockerel that he could persuade to crow thrice. It would be illuminating to see what Danton would do.

  PRESIDENT: Camille Desmoulins—

  JACOBIN: He isn’t here. He knows better.

  JACOBIN: It’s no use calling his name and calling his name, if he’s not here.

  CITIZEN ROBESPIERRE: We will discuss instead—

  CITIZEN DESMOULINS: I am here, actually.

  CITIZEN ROBESPIERRE [loudly]: I said we will move instead to a discussion of the crimes of the British government.

  JACOBIN: Always a safe topic.

  CITIZEN DESMOULINS [at the tribune]: I suppose … I suppose you are going to say that I have been mistaken. I admit I may have been—about Philippeaux’s motives, perhaps. I have made a lot of mistakes in my career. I must ask the Society for guidance because I really … I really don’t know where I am in these matters anymore.

  JACOBIN: I knew he would go to pieces.

  JACOBIN: Always a safe tactic.

  JACOBIN: Look at Robespierre, on his feet already.

  CITIZEN ROBESPIERRE: I demand to speak.

  CITIZEN DESMOULINS: But Robespierre, let me—

  CITIZEN ROBESPIERRE: Be quiet, Camille, I want to speak.

  JACOBIN: Sit down, Camille, you will only talk yourself into more trouble.

  JACOBIN: That’s right—give way, and let Robespierre extricate you. Wonderful, isn’t it?

  CITIZEN ROBESPIERRE [at the tribune]: Citizens, Camille has promised us he will renounce his errors and put aside all the political h
eresies with which the pages of these pamphlets are filled. He has sold vast numbers of copies and the aristocrats in their falseness and treachery have been heaping praise upon him, and it has all gone to his head.

  JACOBIN: He has dropped this manner of his, you know, the long pauses.

  CITIZEN ROBESPIERRE: These writings are dangerous, because they disturb public order and fill our enemies with hope. But we have to distinguish between the author and his work. Camille—oh, Camille is just a spoiled child. His inclinations are good but he has fallen in with bad people and he has been seriously misled. We must repudiate these writing, which even Brissot would not have dared acknowledge, but we must keep Camille amongst us. I demand that—as a gesture—the offending issues of the “old Cordelier” be burned before this Society.

  CITIZEN DESMOULINS: Burning is not answering.

  JACOBIN: How true! Rousseau said it!

  JACOBIN: That we should live to see the day!

  JACOBIN: Robespierre confounded by his god Jean-Jacques! He looks green.

  JACOBIN: I should not like to have to live with the consequences of being that clever.

  JACOBIN: He may not have to.

  CITIZEN ROBESPIERRE: Oh, Camille—how can you defend these writings, which are such a delight to the aristocrats? Camille, if you were anyone else, do you think we should treat you with such indulgence?

  CITIZEN DESMOULINS: I don’t understand you, Robespierre. Some of the writings which you condemn you read yourself in proof. How can you imply that only aristocrats read my work? The Convention and all this Society have read it. Are they all aristocrats?

  CITIZEN DANTON: Citizens, may I suggest you pursue your deliberations calmly? And remember—if you strike at Camille, you strike at the freedom of the press.

  CITIZEN ROBESPIERRE,: All right. Then we won’t burn the pamphlets. Perhaps a man who clings to his mistakes with such tenacity is worse than misled. Perhaps soon we shall see behind his arrogant façade the men at whose dictation he has been writing. [Fabre d’Églantine rises to leave.]