a cunning rogue! Cicero and Demosthenes never uttered more
eloquent insinuations." Cries of angry feeling burst from the ranks of
Brissot's friends, who clamoured for Camille Desmoulins' expulsion. A
censor of the chamber declared that the remarks of the pamphleteer were
disgraceful, and order was restored. Brissot proceeded. "Denunciation is
the weapon of the people: I do not complain of this. Do you know who are
its bitterest enemies? Those who prostitute denunciation. Yes; but where
are the proofs? Treat with the deepest contempt him who denounces, but
does not prove. How long have a protector or a protectorate been talked
of? Do you know why? Is it to accustom the ear to the name of
tribuneship and tribune. They do not see that a tribuneship can never
exist. Who would dare to dethrone the constitutional king? Who would
dare to place the crown on his head? Who can imagine that the race of
Brutus is extinct? And if there were no Brutus, where is the man who has
ten times the ability of Cromwell? Do you believe that Cromwell himself
would have succeeded in a revolution like ours? There were for him two
easy roads to usurpation, which are to-day closed--ignorance and
fanaticism. You think you see a Cromwell in a La Fayette. You neither
know La Fayette nor your times. Cromwell had character--La Fayette has
none. A man does not become protector without boldness and decision;
and when he has both, this society comprises a crowd of friends of
liberty, who would rather perish than support him. I first make the
oath, that either equality shall reign, or I will die contending against
protectors and tribunes. Tribunes! they are the worst enemies of the
people. They flatter to enchain it. They spread suspicions of virtue,
which will not debase itself. Remember who were Aristides and
Phocion,--they did not always sit in the tribune."

Brissot, as he darted this sarcasm, looked towards Robespierre, for whom
he meant it. Robespierre turned pale, and raised his head suddenly.
"They did not always sit in the tribune," continued Brissot; "they were
at their posts in the camp, or at the tribunals," (a sneering laugh came
from the Girondist benches, accusing Robespierre of abandoning his post
at the moment of danger). "They did not disdain any charge, however
humble it might be, when it was assigned them by the people: they spoke
seldom; they did not flatter demagogues; they never denounced without
proofs! The calumniators did not spare