XX
Evariste Gamelin, as he sat, one day that a long, tedious case wasbefore the Tribunal, on the jury-bench in the stifling court, closed hiseyes and thought:
"Evil-doers, by forcing Marat to hide in holes and corners, had turnedhim into a bird of night, the bird of Minerva, whose glance pierced thedark recesses where conspirators lurked. Now it is a blue eye, cold andcalm, that discovers the enemies of the State and denounces traitorswith a subtlety unknown even to the Friend of the People, now asleep forever in the garden of the Cordeliers. The new saviour of the country, aszealous and more keen-sighted than the first, sees what no man beforehad seen and with a lifted finger spreads terror broadcast. He discernsthe fine, imperceptible shades of difference that divide evil from good,vice from virtue, which but for him would have been confounded, to thehurt of the fatherland and freedom, he marks out before him the thin,inflexible line outside which lies, to the right hand and to the left,only error, crime, and wickedness. The Incorruptible teaches how menserve the foreigner equally by excess of zeal and by supineness, bypersecuting the religious in the name of reason no less than by fightingin the name of religion against the laws of the Republic. Every whit asmuch as the villains who immolated Le Peltier and Marat, do they servethe foreigner who decree them divine honours, to compromise theirmemory. Agent of the foreigner whosoever repudiates the ideas of order,wisdom, opportunity; agent of the foreigner whosoever outrages morals,scandalizes virtue, and, in the foolishness of his heart, denies God.Yes, fanatic priests deserve to die; but there is an anti-revolutionaryway of combating fanaticism; abjurers, too, may be guilty of a crime. Bymoderation men destroy the Republic; by violence they do the same.
"August and terrible the functions of a judge,--functions defined by thewisest of mankind! It is not aristocrats alone, federalists, scoundrelsof the Orleans faction, open enemies of the fatherland, that we muststrike down. The conspirator, the agent of the foreigner is a Proteus,he assumes all shapes, he puts on the guise of a patriot, arevolutionary, an enemy of Kings; he affects the boldness of a heartthat beats only for freedom; his voice swells, and the foes of theRepublic tremble. His name is Danton; his violence is a poor cloak tohis odious moderatism, and his base corruption is manifest at last. Theconspirator, the agent of the foreigner is that fluent stammerer, theman who clapped the first cockade of revolution in his hat, thatpamphleteer who, in his ironical and cruel patriotism, nicknamedhimself, 'The procureur of the Lantern.' _His_ name is CamilleDesmoulins. He threw off the mask by defending the Generals, traitors totheir country, and claiming measures of clemency criminal at such atime. There was Philippeaux, there was Herault, there was the despicableLacroix. There was the Pere Duchesne, he, too, a conspirator and agentof the foreigner, the vile demagogue who degraded liberty, and whosefilthy calumnies stirred sympathy for Antoinette herself. There wasChaumette, who yet was a mild man, popular, moderate, well-intentioned,and virtuous in the administration of the Commune; but he was anatheist! Conspirators, agents of the foreigner,--such were all thosesansculottes in red cap and carmagnole and sabots who recklessly outbidthe Jacobins in patriotism. Conspirator and agent of the foreigner wasAnacharsis Cloots, 'orator of the human race,' condemned to die by allthe Monarchies of the world; but everything was to be feared of him,--hewas a Prussian.
"Now violent or moderate, all these evil-doers, all thesetraitors,--Danton, Desmoulins, Hebert, Chaumette,--have perished underthe axe. The Republic is saved; a chorus of praises rises from all theCommittees and the popular assemblies one and all to greet Maximilienand _the Mountain_. Good citizens cry aloud: 'Worthy representatives ofa free people, in vain have the sons of the Titans lifted their proudheads; oh! mountain of blessing, oh! protecting Sinai, from thytumultuous bosom has issued the saving lightning....'
"In this chorus the Tribunal has its meed of praise. How sweet a thingit is to be virtuous, and how dear to public gratitude, to the heart ofthe upright judge!
"Meanwhile, for a patriot heart, what food for amazement, what motivesfor anxiety! What! to betray the people's cause, it was not enough tohave a Mirabeau, a La Fayette, a Bailly, a Petion, a Brissot? We mustlikewise have the men who denounced these traitors. Can it be that allthe patriots who made the Revolution only wrought to ruin her? thatthese heroes of the great days were but contriving with Pitt and Coburgto give the kingdom to the Orleans and set up a Regency under LouisXVII? What! Danton was another Monk. What! Chaumette and the Hebertists,falser than the Federalists who sent them to the guillotine, hadconspired to destroy the State! But among those who hurried to theirdeath the traitor Danton and the traitor Chaumette, will not the blueeye of Robespierre discover anon more perfidious traitors yet? What willbe the end of this hideous concatenation of traitors betrayed and therevelations of the keen-sighted Incorruptible?..."