Germ. 11]
Friends, trembling at the results of a quarrel on their part, brought them to meet, 'It is right,' said Danton, swallowing much indignation, 'to repress the Royalists: but we should not strike except where it is useful to the Republic; we should not confound the innocent and the guilty.'—'And who told you,' replied Robespierre with a poisonous look, 'that one innocent person had perished?'—'Quoi,' said Danton, turning round to Friend Pâris self-named Fabricius, Juryman in the Revolutionary Tribunal: 'Quoi, not one innocent? What sayest thou of it, Fabricius?'[1]—Friends, Westermann, this Pâris and others urged him to show himself, to ascend the Tribune and act. The man Danton was not prone to show himself; to act, or uproar for his own safety. A man of careless, large, hoping nature; a large nature that could rest: he would sit whole hours, they say, hearing Camille talk, and liked nothing so well. Friends urged him to fly; his Wife urged him: 'Whither fly?' answered he: 'If freed France cast me out, there are only dungeons for me elsewhere. One carries not his country with him at the sole of his shoe!' The man Danton sat still. Not even the arrestment of Friend Hérault, a member of Salut, yet arrested by Salut, can rouse Danton.—On the night of the 30th of March Juryman Pâris came rushing in; haste looking through his eyes: A clerk of the Salut Committee had told him Danton's warrant was made out, he is to be arrested this very night! Entreaties there are and trepidation, of poor Wife, of Pâris and Friends: Danton sat silent for a while; then answered, 'Ils n'oseraient, They dare not'; and would take no measures. Murmuring 'They dare not,' he goes to sleep as usual.
And yet, on the morrow morning, strange rumour spreads over Paris City: Danton, Camille, Phélippeaux, Lacroix have been arrested overnight! It is verily so: the corridors of the Luxembourg were all crowded. Prisoners crowding forth to see this giant of the Revolution enter among them. 'Messieurs,'
- ↑ Biographie des Ministres, § Danton.
