tteau, Boucher, or Van Loo; humanity is shown in an ugly light, but it
is not degraded as it is by a Baudouin or a Fragonard."

A hawker went by bawling:

"_Bulletin of the Revolutionary Tribunal!_... list of the condemned!"

"One Revolutionary Tribunal is not enough," said Gamelin, "there should
be one in every town ... in every town, do I say?--nay, in every
village, in every hamlet. Fathers of families, citizens, one and all,
should constitute themselves judges. At a time when the enemy's cannon
is at her gates and the assassin's dagger at her throat, the Nation must
hold mercy to be parricide. What! Lyons, Marseilles, Bordeaux in
insurrection, Corsica in revolt, La Vendee on fire, Mayence and
Valenciennes in the hands of the Coalition, treason in the country, town
and camp, treason sitting on the very benches of the National
Convention, treason assisting, map in hand, at the council board of our
Commanders in the field!... The fatherland is in danger--and the
guillotine must save her!"

"I have no objection on principle to make to the guillotine," replied
Brotteaux. "Nature, my only mistress and my only instructress, certainly
offers me no suggestion to the effect that a man's life is of any value;
on the contrary, she teaches in all kinds of ways that it is of none.
The sole end and object of living beings seems to be to serve as food
for other beings destined to the same end. Murder is of natural right;
therefore, the penalty of death is lawful, on condition it is exercised
from no motives either of virtue or of justice, but by necessity or to
gain some profit thereby. However, I must have perverse instincts, for I
sicken to see blood flow, and this defect of character all my philosophy
has failed so far to correct."

"Republicans," answered Evariste, "are humane and full of feeling. It is
only despots hold the death penalty to be a necessary attribute of
authority. The sovereign people will do away with it one day.
Robespierre fought against it, and all good patriots were with him; the
law abolishing it cannot be too soon promulgated. But it will not have
to be applied till the last foe of the Republic has perished beneath the
sword of law and order."

Gamelin and Brotteaux had by this time a number of late comers behind
them and amongst these several women of the Section, including a
stalwart, handsome _tricoteuse_, in head-kerchief and sabots, wearing a
sword in a shoulder belt, a pretty girl with a mop o