-Whose turn is it now among the
eleven? Seized unawares, the docile Convention unanimously applauding,
after three days of a judicial farce, the cart will bear him to the
Place de la Revolution; Samson will tie him fast, shouters at thirty
sous a day will clap their hands, and, on the following morning, the
popular politicians will congratulate each other on seeing the name of a
great traitor on the bulletin of the guillotined.[3260] To this end, to
enable this or that king of the day to pass from the national Almanac
to the mortuary list, merely required an understanding among his
colleagues, and, perhaps, this is already arrived at. Among whom and
against whom?--It is certain that, as this idea occurs to the eleven,
seated around the table, they eye each other with a shudder they
calculate the chances and turn things over in their minds; words have
been uttered that are not forgotten. Carnot often made this
charge against Saint-Just: "You and Robespierre are after a
dictatorship."[3261] Robespierre replied to Carnot: "I am ready for you
on the first defeat."[3262] On another occasion, Robespierre, in a rage,
exclaimed: "The Committee is conspiring against me!" and, turning to
Billaud, "I know you, now!" Billaud retorted, "I know you too, you are
a counter-revolutionary!"[3263] There are conspirators and
counter-revolutionaries, then, on the committee itself; what can be done
to avoid this appellation, which is a sentence of death?--Silently, the
fatal phantom enthroned in their midst, the Erinyes[3264] through which
they rule, renders his oracle and all take it to heart:

"All who are unwilling to become executioners are conspirators and
counter-revolutionaries."

V. Official Jacobin organs.

Official Jacobin organs.--Reports by Saint-Just are Barere.
--Quality of reports and reporters.

Thus do they march along during twelve months, goaded on by the two
sharp thongs of theory and fear, traversing the red pool which they have
created, and which is daily becoming deeper and deeper, all together
and united, neither of them daring to separate from the group, and each
spattered with the blood thrown in his face by the others' feet. It is
not long before their eyesight fails them; they no longer see their
way, while the degradation of their language betrays the stupor of
their intellect.--When a government brings to the tribune and moves the
enactment of important laws, it confronts the nation, faces Eu