es were exchanged, threatening gesticulations used, and hats were
raised and shaken about on the tops of canes. "I am called a wretch,"
(_scelerat_) continued Guadet, "and yet I am not allowed to denounce a
man who invariably thrusts his personal pride in advance of the public
welfare. A man who, incessantly talking of patriotism, abandons the post
to which he was called! Yes, I denounce to you a man who, either from
ambition or misfortune, has become the idol of the people!" Here the
tumult reached its height, and drowned the voice of Guadet.

Robespierre himself requested silence for his enemy. "Well," added
Guadet, alarmed or softened by Robespierre's feigned generosity, "I
denounce to you a man who, from love of the liberty of his country,
ought perhaps to impose upon himself the law of ostracism; for to remove
him from his own idolatry is to serve the people!" These words were
smothered under peals of affected laughter. Robespierre ascended the
steps of the tribune with studied calmness. His impassive brow
involuntarily brightened at the smiles and applauses of the Jacobins.
"This speech meets all my wishes," said he, looking towards Brissot and
his friends; "it includes in itself all the inculpations which the
enemies by whom I am surrounded have brought against me. In replying to
M. Guadet, I shall reply to all. I am invited to have recourse to
ostracism; there would, no doubt, be some excess of vanity in my
condemning myself--that is the punishment of great men, and it is only
for M. Brissot to class them. I am reproached for being so constantly in
the tribune. Ah! let liberty be assured, let equality be confirmed; let
the _Intrigants_ disappear, and you will see me as anxious to fly from
this tribune, and even this place, as you now see me desirous to be in
them. Thus, in effect, my dearest wishes will be accomplished. Happy in
the public liberty, I shall pass my peaceful days in the delights of a
sweet and obscure privacy."

Robespierre confined himself to these few words, frequently interrupted
by the murmurs of fanatical enthusiasm, and then adjourned his answer to
the following sittings, when Danton was seated in the arm-chair, and
presided over this struggle between his enemies and his rival.
Robespierre began by elevating his own cause to the height of a national
one. He defended himself for having first provoked his adversaries. He
quoted the accusations made, and the injurious things uttered against
hi