Ninety-three/2.2.2
CHAPTER II.
MAGNA TESTANTUR VOCE PER UMBRAS.
Danton had just arisen, quickly pushing back his chair.
"Listen," he cried. "There is only one urgency, the Republic in danger, I know but one thing, that is to deliver France from the enemy. For that all means are good. All! All! All! When I am dealing with every danger, I have recourse to every expedient, and when I fear everything, I risk everything. My thought is a lioness. No half-way measures, no prudery in revolution. Nemesis is not a prude. Let us be frightful and useful. Does the elephant look where he puts his foot? Let us crush the enemy."
Robespierre replied gently,— "I am willing," and he added, "The question is to know where the enemy is."
"It is outside, and I have driven it there," said Danton.
"It is within, and I am watching it," said Robespierre.
"And I will drive it out again," replied Danton.
"You cannot drive away an internal enemy."
"What can be done then?"
"It must be exterminated."
"I give my consent," said Danton in his turn, and he continued: "I tell you it is outside, Robespierre."
"Danton, I tell you it is within."
"Robespierre, it is on the frontier."
"Danton, it is in Vendée."
"Calm yourselves," said a third voice "it is every where; and you are lost."
It was Marat who spoke.
Robespierre looked at Marat and replied calmly,—
"Truce to generalities. I am exact. Here are the facts."
"Pedant!" grumbled Marat.
Robespierre placed his hand on the pile of papers before him, and continued,—
"I have just read you the despatches from Prieur de la Marne. I have just communicated to you the information given by this Gélambre. Danton, listen, foreign war is nothing, civil war is everything. Foreign war is a scratch on the elbow; civil war is an ulcer which eats your vitals. This is the result of all that I have just read to you: La Vendée until now scattered among several chiefs, is on the point of concentrating herself. She is henceforth going to have a single captain,"
"A central brigand," murmured Danton.
"He is" continued Robespierre, "the man landed near Ponterson the second of June. You have seen what he is. Notice that this landing coincides with the arrest of the acting representatives, Prieur de la Côte d'Or and Romme at Bayeux, by the traitorous district of Calvados, the second of June, the same day."
"And their removal to the castle of Caen," said Danton. Robespierre went on:—
"I will continue the summing up of the despatches. The forest war is organizing on a vast scale. At the same time, a descent from the English is in preparation; Vendéans and English; that is, Britain with Brittany. The Hurons[1] of Finisterre speak the same language as the Topinambous[2] of Cornwall. I have laid before your eyes an intercepted letter from Puisaye, in which it says that 'twenty thousand redcoats distributed among the insurgents will raise a hundred thousand.' When the peasant insurrection is completed, the English will make their descent. This is the plan, follow it on the map."
Robespierre placed his finger on the map and continued,—
"The English have the choice of landing from Cancale to Paimpol. Craig would prefer the bay of Saint-Brieuc; Cornwallis, the bay of Saint-Cast. That is mere detail. The left bank of the Loire is guarded by the Rebel Vendéan army, and for twenty-eight leagues of open country between Ancenis and Pontorson, forty Norman parishes have promised their aid. The invasion will be made at three points, Plérin, Iffiniac, and Pléneuf; from Plérin they will go to Saint-Brieuc, and from Pléneuf to Lamballe; the second day, they will reach Dinan, where there are nine hundred English prisoners, and at the same time they will occupy Saint Jouan and Saint-Méen, and will leave cavalry there; the third day, two columns will go, one toward Jouan-sur-Bédée, the other to Dinan-sur-Becherel, which is a natural fortress, and where they will set up two batteries; the fourth day, they will be at Rennes. Rennes is the key of Brittany. Whoever has Rennes has all. If Rennes is taken, Châteauneuf and Saint-Malo will fall. There are a million cartridges and fifty field-pieces at Rennes."
"Which they would sweep away," murmured Danton.
Robespierre continued,—
"I will finish. From Rennes, three columns will attack—one, Fougères; one, Vitré; the other, Redon. As the bridges are cut away, the enemy will provide themselves with pontoons and madriers,—you have seen this fact, stated precisely,—and they will have guides for the points where the cavalry can ford. From Fougères they will radiate to Avranches; from Redon, to Ancenis; and from Vitré to Laval. Nantes will surrender, Brest will surrender. Redon opens the way the entire length of the Vilaine, Fougères gives them the road to Normandy, Vitré gives them the road to Paris. In two weeks they will have an array of brigands, with three hundred thousand men, and all Brittany will belong to the King of France."
"That is to say, to the King of England," said Danton.
"No, to the King of France."
And Robespierre added,—
"The King of France is worse. A foreigner can be driven out in fifteen days, but it takes eighteen hundred years to root out a monarchy."
Danton, who had sat down again, put his elbows on the table and rested his head in his hands, deep in thought.
"You see the danger," said Robespierre, "Vitré gives the road to Paris to the English."
Danton raised his head and brought his two great clenched hands down on the map, as though it were an anvil. "Robespierre, didn't Verdun open the way to Paris for the Prussians?"
"Well?"
"Well, we will drive out the English as we drove out the Prussians."
And Danton rose from his seat again.
Robespierre laid his cold hand on Danton's feverish fingers. "Danton, Champagne was not for the Prussians, and Brittany is for the English. To recapture Verdun was foreign war; to recapture Vitré is civil war."
And Robespierre muttered in a cold, deep voice,—
"A serious difference."
He added,—
"Sit down again, Danton, and look at the map instead of pounding it with your fist."
But Danton clung to his own opinion.
"That is carrying it too far!" he exclaimed, "to look for the catastrophe in the west, when it is coming in the east. Robespierre, I agree with you that England is rising on the ocean; but Spain is rising from the Pyrenees; but Italy is rising from the Alps, and Germany is rising across the Rhine. And the great Russian Bear is at the bottom of it. Robespierre, the danger is in a circle, and we are within it. Coalition without, treason within. In the South, Servant has left the door of France ajar for the king of Spain. In the North, Dumouriez is passing over to the enemy. Moreover, he has always threatened Holland less than Paris. Nerwinde wipes out Jemmapes and Valmy. The philosopher, Radaut Saint-Etienne, a traitor, like the Protestant that he is, corresponds with the courtier Montesquieu. The army is reduced. There is not a battalion now with more than four hundred men; the brave regiment of Deux Ponts is reduced to a hundred and fifty men; the camp of Pamars has surrendered; there are no more than five hundred bags of flour left at Givet; we are falling back on Landau; Wurmser pressed Kléber; Mayence is yielding bravely; Condé, cowardly; Valenciennes, also. But this does not prevent Chancel, who is defending Valenciennes, and old Féraud, who is defending Condé from being two heroes, as well as Meunier, who was defending Mayence. But all the others are traitors: Dharville, at Aix-la-Chapelle; Mouton, at Brussels; Valence, at Bréda; Meuilly, at Limbourg; Miranda, at Maëstricht; Stengel, a traitor; Lanou, a traitor; Ligonnier, a traitor; Menou, a traitor; Dillon, a traitor;—hideous coin of Dumouriez. We ought to make examples of them. Custine's countermarches look suspicious to me; I suspect Custine of preferring the lucrative prize of Frankfort to the useful prize of Coblentz. Frankfort can pay four millions of war tribute. Grant it. What is that compared to crushing that nest of refugees? Treason, I call it. Meunier died the thirteenth of June; Kléber is alone. Meantime, Brunswick is increasing and advancing. He sets up the German flag in all the French places that he takes. The Margrave of Brandenburg is the arbiter of Europe; he pockets our provinces, he will appropriate Belgium, you will see; one would say that we were working for Berlin. If that goes on, and if we do not see to it, the French Revolution will have been made for the benefit of Potsdam; its sole result will have been the enlargement of Frederick II.'s little state, and we shall have killed the King of France for the King of Prussia."
And Danton burst into a frightful laugh.
Danton's laugh made Marat smile.
"You each have your hobby; yours, Danton, is Prussia; yours, Robespierre, la Vendée. Now I will give my views. You do not see the real danger; it is here,—the cafés and the gaming-houses. The café of Choiseul is Jacobin, the café Patin is royalist; the café Rendez-Vous attacks the National Guard, the café of Porte-Saint-Martin defends it; the café of the Regence is against Brissot, the café Corezza is for it; the café Procope swears by Diderot, the café of the Théâtre-Français swears by Voltaire; at the Rotonde they tear up the assignats; the cafés Saint-Marçéau are in a rage; the café Manouri is debating the question of flour; at the café Foy there is gluttony and uproar; at the Perron, there is the buzzing of the hornet-drones of finance. This is the serious matter."
Danton laughed no longer. Marat continued to smile. The smile of a dwarf, worse than a giant's laugh.
"Are you jesting, Marat?" growled Danton.
Marat gave that convulsive movement of his hip, which was famous. His smile died away.
"Ah, I recognize you. Citizen Danton. It was you who called me that fellow Marat, before the whole convention. Listen. I pardon you. We are passing through a period of folly. Ah, am I jesting? Indeed, what sort of a man am I? I denounced Chazot, I denounced Pétion, I denounced Kersaint, I denounced Moreton, I denounced Dufriche-Valazé, I denounced Ligonnier, I denounced Menou, I denounced Banneville, I denounced Gensonné, I denounced Biron, I denounced Lidon and Chambon; was I wrong? I scent treason in the traitor, and I find it worth while to denounce the criminal before the crime. I am in the habit of saying the day before, what the rest of you say the day after. I am the man who proposed a complete plan of criminal legislation to the assembly. What have I done just now? I have asked that the sections be instructed, in order to discipline them for revolution; I have broken the seals of thirty-two strong boxes; I have reclaimed the diamonds placed in Roland's hands; I have proved that the Brissotins gave blank warrants to the Committee of General Safety; I have noted the omissions in Lindet's report on the crimes of Capet; I voted the execution of the tyrant within twenty-four hours; I defended the battalions, Mauconseil and Republican; I prevented the reading of the letter from Narbonne and from Malouet; I have made a motion in favor of the wounded soldiers; I caused the suppression of the Committee of Six; in the affair of Mons, I foresaw the treason of Dumouriez; I have asked that a hundred thousand relatives of the refugees be taken as hostages for the commissioners surrendered to the enemy; I proposed that all representatives who should cross the barriers be declared traitors; I unmasked the Rolandine faction in the troubles at Marseilles; I insisted that a price should be put on the head of the son of Egalite; I defended Bouchotte; I called for the nominal appeal that Isnard might be driven from the chair; I caused it to be declared that the Parisians were worthy of their country;—that is why I am treated like a dancing-jack by Louvet. Finisterre demanded my expulsion, the city of London hopes to have me exiled, the city of Amiens wishes to have me muzzled, Coburg wants to have me arrested, and Lecointe-Puiraveau proposes to the convention to declare me mad. Ah! Citizen Danton, why did you bring me to your secret meeting, if it was not to have my advice? Did I ask you for permission to come? Far from it. I have no taste for interviews with contra-revolutionists such as Robespierre and yourself. Moreover, I ought to have expected it, you have not understood me; you no more than Robespierre, Robespierre no more than you. So there is no statesman here? you must be taught to spell politics; you must dot your i's. What I have said to you, means this: you are both mistaken. The danger is neither in London, as Robespierre believes; nor in Berlin, as Danton believes: it is in Paris. It is in the absence of unity, in the right that each one has to draw his own conclusions; to commence with you two, in minds grovelling in the dust, in the anarchy of wills——"
"Anarchy!" interrupted Danton, "who has caused that if not you?"
Marat did not stop.
"Robespierre, Danton, the danger is in this heap of cafés, in this heap of gaming-houses, in this heap of clubs: club of the Noirs; club of the Fédérés; club of the Dames; club of the Impartiaux, which dates from Clermont-Tonnerre, and was the monarchical club of 1790; a social circle conceived by the priest, Claude Fauché; club of the Bonnets de Laine, founded by the gazetteer Prudhomme, et cætera; without counting your club of the Jacobins, Robespierre; and your club of the Cordeliers, Danton. The danger is in the famine which caused the bag-porter Blin to hang the baker of the market Palu, François Denis, to the lantern of the Hotel de Ville, and in the justice which hung the bag-porter Blin for having hung the baker Denis. The danger is in the paper money, which is depreciating. An assignat of a hundred francs fell on the ground in Rue du Temple, and a passer-by, a man of the people, said: "It is not worth the trouble of picking it up." The stockjobbers and the monopolists, there lies the danger! To hang the black flag from the Hôtel de Ville, a fine step! You arrest the Baron of Trenck, that is not enough. I would have the neck of that old prison intriguer wrung. Do you think you have escaped from the difficulty because the president of the Convention placed a civic crown on the head of Labertèche who received forty-one sabre cuts at Jemmapes, and whose eulogist Chénier became? Comedies and jugglery. Ah! you do not look at Paris! Ah! you look for the danger from afar, when it is near at hand. What good does your police do, Robespierre? For you have your spies: Payan, in the Commune; Coffinhal, in the Revolutionary Tribunal; David, in the Committee of General Safety; Couthon, in the Committee of Public Welfare. You see that I am informed. Well, know this: the danger is above your heads, the danger is under your feet; conspiracy, conspiracy, conspiracy; the people in the streets read the papers together, and shake their heads at one another; six thousand men, without tickets of civism—returned refugees, Muscadins, and Mathevons,—are concealed in cellars and attics, and in the wooden galleries of the Palais-Royal; people form a line in the baker's shop; good women wring their hands on the doorsteps, saying: "When shall we have peace?" It is of no use for you to shut yourselves up in the hall of the Executive Counsel to be by yourselves, for all that you say is known; and to prove it, Robespierre, here are the words you said last evening to Saint-Just: "Barbaroux is beginning to have a big belly, which will hinder him in his flight." Yes, the danger is everywhere, and, above all, at the centre. In Paris the ex-nobles plot, the patriots go barefooted, the aristocrats, arrested the ninth of March, are already released. The splendid horses, which ought to be put to the cannons on the frontier. spatter us in the streets; bread is worth three francs, twelve sous for four pounds, the theatres play immoral pieces, and Robespierre will have Danton guillotined."
"Ugh!" said Danton.
Robespierre examined the map attentively.
"What we need," cried Marat, abruptly, "is a dictator. Robespierre, you know that I want a dictator."
Robespierre raised his head.
"I know, Marat, either you or me."
"I or you," said Marat.
Danton muttered, between his teeth,—
"The dictatorship, try it!"
Marat saw Danton's frown.
"Wait," he added. "One last effort. Let us come to some agreement. The situation is worth the trouble. Haven't we already come to an agreement about the thirty-first of May? The question as a whole is more serious than Girondism, which is a question of detail. There is truth in what you say; but the truth, the whole truth, the real truth, is what I say. In the South, Federalism; in the West, Royalism; in Paris, the duel of the Convention and the Commune; on the frontiers, the retreat of Custine, and the treason of Dumouriez. What does it all amount to? Dismemberment. What do we need? Union. Our safety lies in that; but we must make haste. Paris must take the management of the Revolution. If we lose an hour, the Vendéans may be at Orleans, and the Prussians in Paris to-morrow. I grant you this, Danton; I yield that to you, Robespierre. So be it. Well, the conclusion is the dictatorship. Let us take the dictatorship, and let us three represent the Revolution. We are the three heads of Cerberus. Of these three heads, one speaks, that is you, Robespierre; the other roars, that is you, Danton——"
"The other bites," said Danton; "that is you, Marat."
"All three bite," said Robespierre.
There was a silence. Then the conversation, full of portentous repartees, began again.
"Listen, Marat; before marrying, we must become acquainted. How did you know what I said yesterday to Saint-Just?"
"That concerns me, Robespierre."
"Marat!"
"It is my duty to enlighten myself, and it is my business to keep myself informed."
"Marat!"
"I love knowledge."
"Marat!"
"Robespierre, I know what you said to Saint-Just, as I know what Danton said to Lacroix, as I know what happens on the Quai des Théatins, in the mansion of Labriffe, a den where the nymphs of emigration repair; as I know what takes place in the house of the Thilles, near Gonesse, belonging to Valmerange, former administrator of the posts, where Maury and Cazalès used to go, where Sieyès and Vergniaud have gone since, and where now a certain one goes once a week."
As he said "A certain one," Marat looked at Danton.
Danton exclaimed,—
"If I had two atoms of power, this would be terrible."
Marat continued,—
"I know what you said, Robespierre, as I know what happened in the tower of the Temple, when they fattened Louis XVI. there so well, that in the month of September alone, the wolf, the she-wolf, and the cubs ate eighty-six baskets of peaches. At the same time, the people were starving. I know this as I know that Roland was hidden in a house looking out on a back court in Rue de la Harpe; as I know that six hundred pikes of the fourteenth of July were made by Faure, the Duke of Orléans's locksmith; as I know what was done at the house of Saint-Hilaire, Sillery's mistress; on days when there was to be a ball, old Sillery himself rubbed chalk on the floors of the yellow drawing-room in Rue Neuve-des-Mathurin; Buzot and Kersaint dined there. Saladin dined there the twenty-seventh, and with whom, Robespierre? With your friend, Lasource."
"Words, words," murmured Robespierre. "Lasource is not my friend."
And he added thoughtfully,—
"Meanwhile, there are eighteen manufactories of false assignats in London."
Marat continued in a calm voice, but with a slight trembling, which was alarming,—
"You are the Faction des Importants. Yes, I know it all, in spite of what Saint-Just calls "State silence."
Marat emphasized these words, looked at Robespierre and went on to say,—
"I know what is said at your table when Lebas invites David to eat the cooking of his betrothed, Elizabeth Duplay, your future sister-in-law, Robespierre. I am the enormous eye of the people, and from the depths of my cellar, I look on. Yes, I see; yes, I hear; yes, I know. Little things content you. You admire yourself. Robespierre courts the admiration of his Madame de Chalabre, the daughter of the Marquis de Chalabre, who played whist with Louis XV. the evening of Damiens' execution. Yes, people carry their heads high. Saint-Just lives in a cravat. Legendre is proper, new overcoat and white vest, and a shirt frill to make one forget his apron. Robespierre imagines that history will care to know that he had on an olive frock coat at the Constituante, and a sky-blue coat at the Convention. He has his portrait all over the walls of his room"
Robespierre interrupted him in a voice even more calm than Marat's.
"And you, Marat, you have yours in all the sewers."
They continued in a conversational tone, the slowness of which emphasized their replies and repartees, and added a strange irony to the threats.
"Robespierre, you have termed those who desire the overthrow of thrones, the 'Don Quixotes of the human race.'"
"And you, Marat, after the fourth of August, in number 559 of your Ami du Peuple,—Ah, I have kept the number, it will be useful,—you have asked to have the nobles receive their titles back again. You said: 'A duke is always a duke.'"
"Robespierre, in the meeting of the seventh of December, you defended the Roland woman against Viard."
"Just as my brother defended you, Marat, when you were attacked at the Jacobins. What does that prove? Nothing."
"Robespierre, we know the cabinet of the Tuileries, where you said to Garat: 'I am weary of the Revolution.'"
"Marat, it was here in this public-house, that you embraced Barbaroux, the twenty-ninth of October."
"Robespierre, you said to Buzot: 'What is the Republic?'"
"Marat, it was in this public-house that you invited three men from Marseilles to breakfast with you."
"Robespierre, you have a strong marketman, armed with a cudgel, to escort you."
"And you, Marat, the day before the tenth of August, you asked Buzot to help you escape to Marseilles, disguised as a jockey."
"In September when the courts were in session, you hid yourself, Robespierre."
"And you, Marat, you displayed yourself."
"Robespierre, you flung the red cap on the ground."
"Yes, when a traitor hung it up. What adorns Dumouriez, defiles Robespierre."
"Robespierre, you refused to veil Louis XVI.'s head, while the soldiers were passing by."
"I did better than to veil his head, I cut it off."
Danton interfered, but as oil interferes in fire.
"Robespierre, Marat, calm yourselves."
Marat did not like to be named second. He turned round.
"Why does Danton meddle in this?" he said.
"Why do I meddle? For this reason. To prevent fratricide; to prevent a quarrel between two men who serve the people; because there is enough foreign war, because there is enough civil war, and because there will be too much domestic war; because it was I who brought about the Revolution, and I do not want it spoiled. That is why I am meddling."
Marat replied without raising his voice,—
"You had better meddle with making your accounts."
"My accounts!" exclaimed Danton. "Go ask for them in the defiles of Argonne, in Champagne delivered, in conquered Belgium, in the armies where I have already four times exposed my breast to bullets! Go ask for them in the Place de la Révolution, on the scaffold of the twenty-first of January, on the throne abolished, on the guillotine, that widow——"
Marat interrupted Danton.
"The guillotine is a virgin; men lie with her, but she does not become fruitful."
"What do you know about it, Danton? I would make her pregnant!"
"We shall see," said Marat.
And he smiled.
Danton saw this smile.
"Marat," he exclaimed, "you are a sneak, I am a man for open air and daylight. I hate the life of a reptile. It would not suit me to be a wood-louse. You live in a cellar; I live in the street. You have nothing to say to anybody; any passer-by can see me and speak to me."
"Pretty boy, will you come up where I live?" muttered Marat.
And ceasing to smile, he assumed a peremptory tone.
"Danton, give account of the thirty-three thousand crowns, ready money, that Montmorin paid to you in the name of the king, under pretext of indemnifying you in your capacity of attorney at the Châtelet."
"I was concerned with the fourteenth of July," said Danton, haughtily.
"And the Garde-Meuble? and the crown diamonds?"
"I was concerned with the sixth of October."
"And the plunder committed by your alter ego, Lacroix, in Belgium?"
"I was concerned with the twentieth of June."
"And the loans made à la Montansier?"
"I impelled the people to the return from Varennes."
"And the opera house, built with money furnished by you?"
"I armed the sections of Paris."
"And the hundred thousand francs, the secret funds of the Minister of Justice?"
"I caused the tenth of August."
"And the two millions for the Assembly's secret expenses, of which you took a fourth?"
"I stopped the marching enemy and prevented the allied kings from passing."
"Prostitute!" said Marat.
Danton rose.
"Yes," he cried, "I am a harlot, I have sold my body, but I have saved the world."
Robespierre began to bite his nails. He could neither laugh nor smile. Laughing, Danton's lightning, and smiling, Marat's sting, were left out of him.
Danton replied,—
"I am like the ocean; I have my ebb and flow; at low tide my shallow places appear, at high tide my billows are seen."
"Your froth," said Marat.
"My tempest," said Danton.
Marat had arisen at the same time as Danton. He too burst forth. The adder suddenly became a dragon.
"Ah!" he cried, "ah, Robespierre! ah, Danton! You are now willing to listen to me! Well, I tell you, you are lost. Your policy results in the impossibility to go any farther; there is no exit for you; and you have managed to close all the doors before you, except that of the grave."
"That is our greatness," said Danton.
And he shrugged his shoulders.
Marat continued,—
"Danton, take care. Vergniaud, too, has a large mouth, thick lips, and an angry frown; Vergniaud, too, is pock-marked like Mirabeau and like you; that did not prevent the thirty-first of May. Ah! you shrug your shoulders. Sometimes shrugging the shoulders shakes off one's head. Danton, I tell you, your harsh voice, your loose necktie, your Hessian boots, your little suppers, your big pockets, all look to Louisette."
Louisette was the pet name Marat gave to the guillotine.
He continued,—
"And as for you, Robespierre, you are a Modérée, but that will not do you any good. Go, powder yourself, dress your hair, play the coxcomb, wear fine linen, prink, and be curled and painted, but you will go to Place-de-Grève, all the same; read Brunswick's declaration; still you will be treated like the regicide Damiens, and you will look as fine as a new pin while waiting to be quartered alive."
"Echo of Coblentz," said Robespierre between his teeth.
"Robespierre, I am not an echo of anything, I am the outcry of all. Ah! you are young. How old are you, Danton? Thirty-four years. How old are you, Robespierre? Thirty-three. Well, as for me, I have always been alive; I am suffering humanity, I am six thousand years old."
"That is true," replied Danton, "for six thousand years, Cain has been preserved in hatred like a toad in a stone. The rock is broken, and Cain leaps forth among men, and that is Marat."
"Danton!" exclaimed Marat, and a livid light appeared in his eyes.
"Well, what?" said Danton.
Thus these three terrible men went on talking. A quarrel of thunderbolts.