A Place of Greater Safety: A Novel

“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,” Herault 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 Orleans. 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 always 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 Hebert, 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.