d on the 9th of Thermidor, had you seen
his green eyeballs!" "Physically as well as morally," he becomes a
second Marat, suffering all the more because his delirium is not steady,
and because his policy, being a moral one, forces him to exterminate on
a grander scale.

But he is a discreet Marat, of a timid temperament, anxious,[31151]
keeping his thoughts to himself, made for a school-master or a
pleader, but not for taking the lead or for governing, always acting
hesitatingly, and ambitious to be rather the pope, than the dictator
of the Revolution.[31152] Above all, he wants to remain a political
Grandison[31153]; until the very end, he keeps his mask, not only in
public but also to himself and in his inmost conscience. The mask,
indeed, has adhered to his skin; he can no longer distinguish one from
the other; never did an impostor more carefully conceal intentions and
acts under sophisms, and persuade himself that the mask was his face,
and that in telling a lie, he told the truth.

Taking his word for it, he had nothing to do with the September
events.[31154] "Previous to these events, he had ceased to attend the
General Council of the Commune... He no longer went there." He was not
charged with any duty, he had no influence there; he had not provoked
the arrest and murder of the Girondists.[31155] All he did was to "speak
frankly concerning certain members of the Committee of Twenty-one;" as
"a magistrate" and "one of a municipal assembly." Should he not" explain
himself freely on the authors of a dangerous plot?" Besides, the Commune
"far from provoking the 2nd of September did all in its power to prevent
it." After all, only one innocent person perished, "which is undoubtedly
one too many. Citizens, mourn over this cruel mistake; we too have long
mourned over it! But, as all things human come to an end, let your tears
cease to flow." When the sovereign people resumes its delegated
power and exercises its inalienable rights, we have only to bow our
heads.--Moreover, it is just, wise and good "in all that it undertakes,
all is virtue and truth; nothing can be excess, error or crime."[31156]
It must intervene when its true representatives are hampered by the
law "let it assemble in its sections and compel the arrest of faithless
deputies."[31157] What is more legal than such a motion, which is the
only part Robespierre took on the 31st of May. He is too scrupulous to
commit or prescribe an illegal act. That will d