A Place of Greater Safety: A Novel

touch him on the elbow, and conduct him to his end. “Good-bye, my friends,” Herault says, just that; then immediately they have got their hands on Camille. It makes sense. Quickly dispose of anyone who might discomfit the crowds.

Camille is now, suddenly, calm. It is too late for Herault to see how his example has been beneficial; but Camille nods his head towards Henri Sanson. “As Robespierre would say—you have to smile. This man’s father sued me for libel. Wouldn’t you think that I have the grievance now?”

He does smile. Danton’s stomach turns over: breathing flesh, dead meat. He sees Camille speak to Sanson: he sees the man take the locket from his bound hands. The locket is for Annette. He will not forget to deliver it; the last wishes are sacred, and he is of an honorable trade. For ten seconds Danton looks away. After that he watches everything, each bright efflorescence of life’s blood. He watches each death, until he is tutored to his own.

“Hey, Sanson?”

“Citizen Danton?”

“Show my head to the people. It’s worth the trouble.”

Rue Honore: One day, a long time ago, his mother sat by a window, making lace. The broad morning light streamed in on both of them. He saw that it was the gaps that were important, the spaces between the threads which made the pattern, and not the threads themselves. “Show me how to do it,” he said. “I want to learn.”

“Boys don’t do it,” she said. Her face was composed; her work continued. His throat closed at the exclusion.

Now, whenever he looks at a piece of lace—even though his eyes are bad—he seems to see every thread in the work. At the Committee table, the image rises at the back of his mind, and forces him to look far, far back into his childhood. He sees the girl on the window seat, her body swollen, pregnant with death: he sees the light on her bent head; beneath her fingers the airy pattern, going nowhere, flying away.

The Times, April 8, 1794:

When the late reconciliation took place, between Robespierre and Danton, we remarked that it proceeded rather from the fear which these two famous revolutionists entertained of each other, than from mutual affection; we added, that it should last only until the more dexterous of the two should find an opportunity to destroy his rival. The time, fatal to Danton, is at length arrived … . We do not comprehend why Camille Desmoulins, who was so openly protected by Robespierre, is crushed in the triumph of this dictator.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

PART ONE

In Guise:

Jean-Nicolas Desmoulins, a lawyer

Madeleine, his wife

Camille, his eldest son (b. 1760)

Elisabeth, his daughter

Henriette, his daughter (died aged nine)

Armand, his son

Anne-Clothilde, his daughter

Clement, his youngest son

The Prince de Conde, premier nobleman of the

district and a client of Jean-Nicolas Desmoulins

In Arcis-sur-Aube:

Marie- Madeleine Danton, a widow, who marries

Jean Recordain, an inventor

Georges-Jacques, her son (b.1759)

Anne-Madeleine, her daughter

Pierrette, her daughter

Marie-Cecile, her daughter who becomes a nun

In Arras:

Francois de Robespierre, a lawyer

Maximilien, his son (b. 1758)

Charlotte, his daughter

Henriette, his daughter (died aged nineteen)

Augustin, his younger son

Jacqueline, his wife, nee Carraut, who dies

after giving birth to a fifth child

Grandfather Carraut, a brewer

In Paris, at Louis-le-Grand:

Father Poignard, the principal—a liberal-minded man

Father Proyart, the deputy principal—not at all a liberal-minded man

Father Herivaux, a teacher of classical languages

Louis Suleau, a student

Stanislas Freron, a very well-connected student, known as “Rabbit”

In Troyes:

Fabre d’Eglantine, an unemployed genius

PART TWO

In Paris:

Maitre Vinot, a lawyer in whose chambers

Georges-Jacques Danton is a pupil

Maitre Perrin, a lawyer in whose chambers

Camille Desmoulins is a pupil

Jean- Marie Herault de Sechelles, a young

nobleman and legal dignitary

Francois-Jerome Charpentier, a cafe owner and Inspector of Taxes

Angelique (Angelica), his Italian wife

Gabrielle, his daughter

Francoise-Julie Duhauttoir, George-Jacques Danton’s mistress

At the rue Conde:

Claude Duplessis, a senior civil servant

Annette, his wife

Abbe Laudreville, Annette’s confessor, a go-between

In Guise:

Rose-Fleur Godard, Camille Desmoulins’s fiancee

In Arras:

Joseph Fouche, a teacher, Charlotte de Robespierre’s beau

Lazare Carnot, a military engineer, a friend of

Maximilien de Robespierre

Anais Deshorties, a nice girl whose relatives want

her to marry Maximilien de Robespierre

Louise de Keralio, a novelist, who goes to Paris, marries

Francois Robert and edits a newspaper

Hermann, a lawyer, a friend of Maximilien de Robespierre

The Orleanists:

Philippe, Duke of Orleans, cousin of King Louis XVI

Felicite de Genlis, an author—his ex- mistress,

now Governor of his children

Charles-Alexis Brulard de Sillery, Comte de Genlis-Felicite’s

husband, a former naval officer, a gambler

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, a novelist, the Duke’s secretary

Agnes de Buffon, the Duke’s mistress

Grace Elliot, the Duke’s mistress, a spy for

the British Foreign Office

Axel von Fersen, the Queen’s lover

At Danton’s chambers:

Jules Pare, his clerk

Francois Deforgues, his clerk

Billaud-Varennes, his part-time clerk, a man of sour temperament

At the Cour du Commerce:

Mme. Gely, who lives upstairs from Georges-Jacques and

Gabrielle Danton

Antoine, her husband

Louise, her daughter