Phocion. He was the victim of an
adulator of the people! Ah! this reminds me of the horrible calumny
uttered against Condorcet! Who are you who dare to slander this great
man? What have you done? What are your labours, your writings? Can you
quote, as he can, so many assaults during three years by himself with
Voltaire and D'Alembert against the throne, superstition, prejudices,
and the aristocracy? Where would you be, where this tribune, were it not
for these gentlemen? They are your masters; and you insult those who
gain you the voices of the people. You assail Condorcet, as though his
life had not been a series of sacrifices! A philosopher, he became a
politician; academician, he became a newspaper writer; a courtier, he
became one of the people; noble, he became a Jacobin! Beware! you are
following the concealed impulses of the court. Ah, I will not imitate my
adversaries, I would not repeat those rumours which assert they are paid
by the civil list." (There was a report that Robespierre had been gained
over to oppose the war.) "I shall not say a word of a secret committee
which they frequent, and in which are concerted the means of influencing
this society; but I will say that they follow in the track of the
promoters of civil war. I will say, that without meaning it, they do
more harm to the patriots than the court. And at what moment do they
throw division amongst us? At the moment when we have a foreign war, and
when an intestine war threatens us. Let us put an end to these disputes,
and let us go to the order of the day, leaving our contempt for odious
and injurious denunciations."

XX.

At this, Robespierre and Guadet, equally provoked, wished to enter the
tribune. "It is forty-eight hours," said Guadet, "that the desire of
justifying myself has weighed upon my heart; it is only a few minutes
that this want has affected Robespierre. I request to be heard." Leave
was accorded, and he briefly exculpated himself. "Be especially on your
guard," he said, as he concluded, and pointed to Robespierre, "against
empirical orators, who have incessantly in their mouths the words of
liberty, tyranny, conspiracy--always mixing up their own praises with
the deceit they impose upon the people. Do justice to such men!"
"Order!" cried Freron, Robespierre's friend; "this is insult and
sarcasm." The tribune resounded with applause and hooting. The chamber
itself was divided into two camps, separated by a wide space. Harsh
nam