A Place of Greater Safety: A Novel

HERAULT: De Sade isn’t a satanist.

FABRE: Oh, I thought he was.

HERAULT: Why are you learning Hebrew, Camille?

CAMILLE: It has to do with my work on the Church Fathers.

DANTON: Oh God.

CAMILLE [whispering to Herault]: Notice how close together his eyes are. His first wife died in mysterious circumstances.

HERAULT [whispering]: Is that true?

CAMILLE: I never make things up.

DANTON: M. Fouquier expresses himself ready to do anything.

HERAULT: He’s definitely related to Camille.

LEGENDRE: Can we get on with the planning? [To Fouquier] They treat me like an imbecile. It’s because I’ve got no formal education. Your cousin makes snide remarks about me in foreign languages.

FOUQUIER: Ones you don’t speak?

LEGENDRE: Yes.

FOUQUIER: How do you know then?

LEGENDRE: Are you a lawyer?

FOUQUIER: Yes.

DANTON: I’d say about a week now.

Mousseaux, the residence of the Duke of Orleans: a lack of conviviality, not to say a bleakness, at the Duke’s supper table. Charles-Alexis looked discomfitted—whether because of the pate, or royalist intimidation, the Duke could not say. His unhappy eyes traveled over the pigeon breasts, boned, stuffed with asparagus and morels; they traveled over his guests, and alighted on Robespierre. He looked much as he had in ’89, the Duke thought: same impeccably cut coat (same coat in fact), same correctly powdered hair. It must be rather different, Philippe thought, from the carpenter’s dinner table. Did he sit so upright there, did he eat so little, did he make mental notes? By his glass of wine there was a glass of water. The Duke leaned forward almost timidly, and touched his arm.

PHILIPPE: I feel … perhaps things have gone wrong … the royalists are very strong … the danger is immediate. I mean to leave for England, I beg you to come with me.

DANTON: I’ll cut the throat of any bastard that pulls out now. The fucking thing’s organized. We’re going through with it.

PETION: My dear Danton, there are certain problems.

DANTON: And you’re one. Your people just want the King to give them their ministries back, then they’ll be happy. That’s as far as they’re interested in going.

PETION: I don’t know what you mean by “my people.” I am not a member of any faction. Factons and parties are injurious to democracy.

DANTON: Tell Brissot. Don’t tell me.

PETION: The defense of the palace is being organized right now. There are three hundred gentlemen ready to defend it.

DANTON: Gentlemen? I’m terrified.

PETION: I’m just telling you.

DANTON: The more the merrier. They’ll be tripping over each other when they faint.

PEION: We haven’t enough cartridges.

DANTON: I’ll get you some from the police.

PETION: What, officially?

DANTON: I am First Deputy Public Prosecutor. I can manage a simple thing like cartridges, for God’s sake.

PETION: There are nine hundred Swiss Guard at the palace, and I’m told they’re very good fighting men and loyal to Capet and that they won’t give up.

DANTON: Make sure they’re not allowed to stock up on ammunition. Come on, Petion, these are just technicalities.

PETION: There is the problem of the National Guard. We know that many individual Guardsmen support us, but they won’t just break ranks, they have to act under orders, or we’re in a totally unpredictable situation. We made a mistake when we allowed the Marquis de Mandat to take over as commander. He’s an out-and-out royalist.

[Philippe thinks, we’ll have to stop using the word in that condemnatory sense, when I become King. ]

PETION: We’ll have to remove Mandat.

DANTON: What do you mean, remove him? Kill him, man, kill him. The dead can’t come back.

[Silence]

DANTON: Technicalities.

CAMILLE DESMOULINS: For the establishment of liberty and the safety of the nation, one day of anarchy will do more than ten years of National Assemblies.

MME. ELISABETH: There’s nothing to worry about. M. Danton will look after us.