of
self-preservation, raised their arms to ward off the knife. Nothing but
imminent, personal, mortal danger could, in these prostrated beings,
supplant long-continued fear with still greater fear. Later on, Sieyes,
on being asked how he acted in these times, replied, "I lived." In
effect, he and others are reduced to that; they succeeded in doing this,
at all costs, and at what a price![3230] His secret notes, his most
private sketches confirm this[3231]...

"On the Committee of March 20, "Paillasse, half drunk, gives a
dissertation on the way to carry on the war, and interrogates and
censures the Minister. The poor Minister evades his questions with cafe
gossip and a review of campaigns. These are the men placed at the head
of the government to save the Republic!"--"H...., in his distraction,
had the air of a sly fox inwardly smiling at his own knavish thoughts.
Ruit irrevocabile vulgus... Jusque Datum sceleri."--"Are you keeping
silent?"--"Of what use is my glass of wine in this torrent of ardent
spirits?"--

All this is very well, but he did not merely keep silent and abstain. He
voted, legislated and decreed, along with the unanimous Convention; he
was a collaborator, not only passively, through his presence, but also
through his active participation in the acts of the government which he
elected and enthroned, re-elected twelve times, cheered every week,
and flattered daily, authorizing and keeping on to the end its work of
spoliation and massacre.

"Everybody is guilty here," said Carrier in the Convention, "even to the
president's bell."

In vain do they constantly repeat to themselves that they were forced to
obey under penalty of death: the conscience of the purest among them, if
he has any, replies:

"You too, in spite of yourself, I admit; less than others, if you
please, but you were a terrorist, that is to say, a brigand and an
assassin."[3232]

III. The Committee of Public Safety.

The Men who do the work.--Carnot, Prieur de-la-Cote d'Or,
Jean Bon Saint Andre, Robert Lindet.

On a man becoming a slave, said old Homer, the Gods take away the half
of his soul; the same is true of a man who becomes a tyrant.--In the
Pavilion de Flore, alongside of and above the enslaved Convention, sit
the twelve kings it has enthroned, twice a day,[3233] ruling over it as
well as over France.[3234] Of course, some guarantee is required
from those who fill this place; there is not one of them who