SAINT-JUST: Camille won’t be able to get him off this time. Not that the prisons are secure.
ROBESPIERRE: Oh, the prisons! The people are saying that if the supply of meat doesn’t improve they are going to break into the prisons and roast the prisoners and eat them.
SAINT-JUST: The people are degraded, in their present state of education.
ROBESPIERRE: What do you expect? I had forgotten to worry about the meat supply.
SAINT-JUST: I think you are getting off the point.
ROBESPIERRE: Danton is a patriot. Bring me the evidence against him.
SAINT-JUST: Robespierre, you are a very obstinate man. What kind of evidence do you want?
ROBESPIERRE: Anyway, how do you know what letters Camille has?
SAINT-JUST: Oh, when I was giving you the list of those with whom Danton conspired, I forgot to include Lafayette.
ROBESPIERRE: Well, that’s just about everybody then, isn’t it?
SAINT-JUST: Yes, I think that’s just about everybody.
In the first week of the new year certain papers were brought to Robespierre, which proved beyond doubt Fabre’s involvement in the East India Company fraud—an affair that Fabre himself, with the cooperation of the Police Committee, had been investigating for more than two months. For half an hour Robespierre sat over the papers, shaking with humiliation and rage, fighting for control. When he heard Saint-Just’s voice, he would have liked to get out of the room; but there was only one exit.
SAINT- JUST: What do you say now? Camille must have known something about it.
ROBESPIERRE: He was protecting a friend. Oh, he shouldn’t have done that. He should have told me.
SAINT-JUST: Fabre really took you in.
ROBESPIERRE: The conspiracies he spoke of were real.
SAINT-JUST: Oh yes. All the men he names have behaved as he predicted. What do we think of someone so close to the heart of perfidy?
ROBESPIERRE: We know what to think now.
SAINT-JUST: Fabre has been at Danton’s side throughout.
ROBESPIERRE: And so?
SAINT-JUST: Don’t show yourself more naive than you have been.
ROBESPIERRE: I will have Fabre out of the Jacobins at the next meeting. I trusted him, and he’s made me look a fool.
SAINT-JUST: They have all made you look a fool.
ROBESPIERRE: I must begin to think again. I am too well disposed towards people.
SAINT-JUST: I have a certain amount of evidence that I can put before you.
ROBESPIERRE: I know what people call evidence these days. Hearsay and denunciation and empty rhetoric.
SAINT-JUST: Are you determined to persist in your error?
ROBESPIERRE: You sound like a priest, Antoine. It’s what they say when you’re at confession—do you recall? I’ve been mistaken, I agree, in my course of action. I have been looking at what people do, listening to what they say, but I should have been looking into their hearts. I am going to find out all the conspirators now.
SAINT-JUST: Whoever they are. However great their credit in the Revolution, it must now be examined. The Revolution has got frozen up. They have frozen it up with their talk of moderation. To stand still in Revolution is to slip backwards.
ROBESPIERRE: You are mixing your metaphors.
SAINT-JUST: I am not a writer. I have more than phrases to offer.
ROBESPIERRE: Back to Camille again.
SAINT-JUST: Yes.
ROBESPIERRE: He has been misled.
SAINT-JUST: That is not my view, or the general view of the Committee. We believe him responsible for his actions, and we feel strongly that he should not escape what he deserves because of any personal feelings you might entertain for him.
ROBESPIERRE: What are you accusing me of?
SAINT-JUST: Weakness.
ROBESPIERRE: I did not get where I am through weakness.
SAINT-JUST: Remind us of it.
ROBESPIERRE: His conduct will be investigated, just as if he were anyone else. He is only an individual … . Oh my God, how I hoped to avoid this.
The fifth issue of the “Old Cordelier” appeared on January 5, 16 Nivose. It attacked Hebert and his faction, compared his writings (unfavorably) to an open sewer, accused him of corruption and of complicity with the enemy. It attacked Barere and Collot, members of the Committee of Public Safety.
Proceedings of the Jacobin Club (1):
CITIZEN COLLOT [
CITIZEN
