might deliver the army over to La Fayette, and the
Assembly to the Feuillants.[20] Petion, friend of Robespierre and
Brissot, at the same time closely allied to the Jacobins and with Madame
Roland, kept his popularity in equilibrium for fear of losing half of it
if he decided positively for one side or the other. He tried next day to
effect a general reconciliation. "On both sides," he said, with a
tremulous voice, "I see my friends." There was an apparent truce; but
Guadet and Brissot printed their speeches, with offensive additions,
against Robespierre. They doggedly sapped his reputation by fresh
calumnies. On the 30th of April another storm broke out.

It was proposed to interdict all denunciations unaccompanied by proofs.
"Reflect on what is proposed to you," said Robespierre: "the majority
here belongs to a faction, which desires by this means to calumniate us
freely, and stifle our accusations by silence. If you decree that I am
prohibited from defending myself from the libellers who conspire against
me, I shall quit this place, and will bury myself in retreat." "We will
follow you, Robespierre," exclaimed the women in the tribunes. "They
have profited by the discourse of Petion," he continued, "to disseminate
infamous libels against me. Petion himself is insulted. His heart beats
in sympathy with mine; he groans over the insults with which I am
assailed. Read Brissot's journal, and you will there see that I am
invited not always to be apostrophising the people in my discourses.
Yes, it is to be forbidden to pronounce the name of the people under
pain of passing for a malcontent,--a tribune. I am compared to the
Gracchi: they are right so to compare me. What may be perhaps common
between us is their tragical end. That is little: they make me
responsible for a writing of Marat, who points me out as a tribune by
preaching blood and slaughter. Have I ever professed such principles? Am
I guilty of the extravagance of such an excited writer as Marat?"

At these words, Lasource, the friend of Brissot, wished to speak, and
was refused. Merlin demanded if the peace sworn yesterday ought to bind
only one of two parties, and to authorise the other to spread calumnies
against Robespierre? The Assembly tumultuously insisted on the orators
being silent. Legendre declared that the chamber was partial.
Robespierre quitted the tribune, approached the president, and addressed
him with menacing gestures, and in language impossibl