At last, on the 8 Thermidor, in the Convention, the Incorruptible rises, he is going to speak. Sun of the 31st May, is this to be a second day-spring? Gamelin waits and hopes. His mind is made up then! Robespierre is to drag from the benches they dishonour1 these legislators more guilty than the federalists, more dangerous than Danton.... No! not yet. "I cannot," he says, "resolve to clear away entirely2 the veil that hides this mystery of iniquity3."
It is mere4 summer lightning that flashes harmlessly and without striking any one of the conspirators5, terrifies all. Sixty of them at least for a fortnight had not dared sleep in their beds. Marat's way was to denounce traitors6 by their name, to point the finger of accusation7 at conspirators. The Incorruptible hesitates, and from that moment he is the accused....
That evening at the Jacobins, the hall is filled to suffocation8, the corridors, the courtyard are crowded.
They are all there, loud-voiced friends and silent enemies. Robespierre reads them the speech the Convention had heard in affrighted silence, and the Jacobins greet it with excited applause.
"I will drink it with you," answered David.
"All, we all will!" shout the Jacobins, and separate without deciding anything.
évariste, while the death of The Just was preparing, slept the sleep of the Disciples11 in the garden of Gethsemane. Next day, he attended the Tribunal where two sections were sitting. That on which he served was trying twenty-one persons implicated13 in the conspiracy14 of the Lazare prison. The case was still proceeding15 when the tidings arrived:
"The Convention, after a six-hours' session, has decreed Maximilien Robespierre accused,—with him Couthon and Saint-Just; add Augustin Robespierre, and Lebas, who have demanded to share the lot of the accused. The five outlaws16 stand at the bar of the house."
News is brought that the President of the Section sitting in the next court, the citoyen Dumas, has been arrested on the bench, but that the case goes on. Drums can be heard beating the alarm, and the tocsin peals17 from the churches.
évariste is still in his place when he is handed an order from the Commune to proceed to the H?tel de Ville to sit in the General Council. To the sound of the rolling drums and clanging church bells, he and his colleagues record their verdict; then he hurries home to embrace his mother and snatch up his scarf of office. The Place de Thionville is deserted18. The Section is afraid to declare either for or against the Convention. Wayfarers19 creep along under the walls, slip down side-streets, sneak20 indoors. The call of the tocsin and alarm-drums is answered by the noise of barring shutters21 and bolting doors. The citoyen Dupont senior has secreted22 himself in his shop; Remacle the porter is barricaded23 in his lodge24. Little Joséphine holds Mouton tremblingly in her arms. The widow Gamelin bemoans25 the dearness of victuals26, cause of all the trouble. At the foot of the stairs évariste encounters élodie; she is panting for breath and her black locks are plastered on her hot cheek.
"I have been to look for you at the Tribunal; but you had just left. Where are you going?"
"To the H?tel de Ville."
"Don't go there! It would be your ruin; Hanriot is arrested ... the Sections will not stir. The Section des Piques27, Robespierre's Section, will do nothing, I know it for a fact; my father belongs to it. If you go to the H?tel de Ville, you are throwing away your life for nothing."
"You wish me to be a coward?"
"No! the brave thing is to be faithful to the Convention and to obey the Law."
"The law is dead when malefactors triumph."
"évariste, hear me; hear your élodie; hear your sister. Come and sit beside her and let her soothe28 your angry spirit."
He looked at her; never had she seemed so desirable in his eyes; never had her voice sounded so seductive, so persuasive29 in his ears.
"A couple of paces, only a couple of paces, dear évariste!"—and she drew him towards the raised platform on which stood the pedestal of the overthrown30 statue. It was surrounded by benches occupied by strollers of both sexes. A dealer31 in fancy articles was offering his laces, a seller of cooling drinks, his portable cistern32 on his back, was tinkling33 his bell; little girls were showing off their airs and graces. The parapet was lined with anglers, standing34, rod in hand, very still. The weather was stormy, the sky overcast35. Gamelin leant on the low wall and looked down on the islet below, pointed36 like the prow37 of a ship, listening to the wind whistling in the tree-tops, and feeling his soul penetrated38 with an infinite longing39 for peace and solitude40.
Like a sweet echo of his thoughts, élodie's voice sighed in his ear:
"Do you remember, évariste, how, at sight of the green fields, you wanted to be a country justice in a village? Yes, that would be happiness."
But above the rustling41 of the trees and the girl's voice, he could hear the tocsin and alarm-drums, the distant tramp of horses, and rumbling42 of cannon43 along the streets.
Meantime the news was spreading; Robespierre's name was spoken, but in a shuddering46 whisper, for men feared him still. Women, when they heard the muttered rumour47 of his fall, concealed48 a smile.
évariste Gamelin seized élodie's hand, but dropped it again swiftly next moment:
"Farewell! I have involved you in my hideous49 fortunes, I have blasted your life for ever. Farewell! I pray you may forget me!"
"Whatever you do," she warned him, "do not go back home to-night. Come to the Amour peintre. Do not ring; throw a pebble50 at my shutters. I will come and open the door to you myself; I will hide you in the loft51."
"You shall see me return triumphant52, or you shall never see me more. Farewell!"
On nearing the H?tel de Ville, he caught the well-remembered roar of the old great days rising to the grey heavens. In the Place de Grève a clash of arms, the glitter of scarfs and uniforms, Hanriot's cannon drawn53 up. He mounts the grand stairs and, entering the Council Hall, signs the attendance book. The Council General of the Commune, by the unanimous voice of the 491 members present, declares for the outlawed54 patriots55.
The Mayor sends for the Table of the Rights of Man, reads the clause which runs, "When the Government violates the Rights of the people, insurrection is for the people the most sacred and the most indispensable of duties," and the first magistrate56 of Paris announces that the Commune's answer to the Convention's act of violence is to raise the populace in insurrection.
The members of the Council General take oath to die at their posts. Two municipal officers are deputed to go out on the Place de Grève and invite the people to join with their magistrates57 in saving the fatherland and freedom.
There is an endless looking for friends, exchanging news, giving advice. Among these Magistrates, artisans are the exception. The Commune assembled here is such as the Jacobin purge58 has made it,—judges and jurors of the Revolutionary Tribunal, artists like Beauvallet and Gamelin, householders living on their means and college professors, cosy59 citizens, well-to-do tradesmen, powdered heads, fat paunches, and gold watch-chains, very few sabots, striped trousers, carmagnole smocks and red caps.
These bourgeois60 councillors are numerous and determined61, but, when all is said, they are pretty well all Paris possesses of true Republicans. They stand on guard in the city mansion-house, as on a rock of liberty, but an ocean of indifference62 washes round their refuge.
However, good news arrives. All the prisons where the proscribed63 had been confined open their doors and disgorge their prey64. Augustin Robespierre, coming from La Force, is the first to enter the H?tel de Ville and is welcomed with acclamation.
At eight o'clock it is announced that Maximilien, after a protracted65 resistance, is on his way to the Commune. He is eagerly expected; he is coming; he is here; a roar of triumph shakes the vault66 of the old Municipal Palace.
He enters, supported by twenty arms. It is he, the little man there, slim, spruce, in blue coat and yellow breeches. He takes his seat; he speaks.
At his arrival the Council orders the fa?ade of the H?tel de Ville to be illuminated67 there and then. It is there the Republic resides. He speaks in a thin voice, in picked phrases. He speaks lucidly68, copiously69. His hearers who have staked their lives on his head, see the naked truth, see it to their horror. He is a man of words, a man of committees, a wind-bag incapable70 of prompt action, incompetent71 to lead a Revolution.
They draw him into the Hall of Deliberation. Now they are all there, these illustrious outlaws,—Lebas, Saint-Just, Couthon. Robespierre has the word. It is midnight and past, he is still speaking. Meantime Gamelin in the Council Hall, his bent72 brow pressed against a window, looks out with a haggard eye and sees the lamps flare73 and smoke in the gloom. Hanriot's cannon are parked before the H?tel de Ville. In the black Place de Grève surges an anxious crowd, in uncertainty74 and suspense75. At half past twelve torches are seen turning the corner of the Rue de la Vannerie, escorting a delegate of the Convention, clad in the insignia of office, who unfolds a paper and reads by the ruddy light the decree of the Convention, the outlawry76 of the members of the insurgent77 Commune, of the members of the Council General who are its abettors and of all such citizens as shall listen to its appeal.
Outlawry, death without trial! The mere thought pales the cheek of the most determined. Gamelin feels the icy sweat on his brow. He watches the crowd hurrying with all speed from the Place. Turning his head, he finds that the Hall, packed but now with Councillors, is almost empty. But they have fled in vain; their signatures attest78 their attendance.
It is two in the morning. The Incorruptible is in the neighbouring Hall, in deliberation with the Commune and the proscribed representatives.
Gamelin casts a despairing look over the dark Square below. By the light of the lanterns he can see the wooden candles above the grocer's shop knocking together like ninepins; the street lamps shiver and swing; a high wind has sprung up. Next moment a deluge79 of rain comes down; the Place empties entirely; such as the fear of the Convention and its dread80 decree had not put to flight scatter81 in terror of a wetting. Hanriot's guns are abandoned, and when the lightning reveals the troops of the Convention debouching simultaneously82 from the Rue Antoine and from the Quai, the approaches to the H?tel de Ville are utterly83 deserted.
At last Maximilien has resolved to make appeal from the decree of the Convention to his own Section,—the Section des Piques.
The Council General sends for swords, pistols, muskets84. But now the clash of arms, the trampling85 of feet and the shiver of broken glass fill the building. The troops of the Convention sweep by like an avalanche86 across the Hall of Deliberation, and pour into the Council Chamber87. A shot rings out; Gamelin sees Robespierre fall; his jaw88 is broken. He himself grasps his knife, the six-sous knife that, one day of bitter scarcity89, had cut bread for a starving mother, the same knife that, one summer evening at a farm at Orangis, élodie had held in her lap, when she cried the forfeits90. He opens it, tries to plunge91 it into his heart, but the blade strikes on a rib12, closes on the handle, the catch giving way, and two fingers are badly cut. Gamelin falls, the blood pouring from the wounds. He lies quite still, but the cold is cruel, and he is trampled92 underfoot in the turmoil93 of a fearful struggle. Through the hurly-burly he can distinctly hear the voice of the young dragoon Henry, shouting:
"The tyrant94 is no more; his myrmidons are broken. The Revolution will resume its course, majestic95 and terrible."
Gamelin fainted.
At seven in the morning a surgeon sent by the Convention dressed his hurts. The Convention was full of solicitude96 for Robespierre's accomplices97; it would fain not have one of them escape the guillotine.
The artist, ex-juror, ex-member of the Council General of the Commune, was borne on a litter to the Conciergerie.
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1
dishonour
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| n./vt.拒付（支票、汇票、票据等）；vt.凌辱，使丢脸；n.不名誉，耻辱，不光彩 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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iniquity
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| n.邪恶；不公正 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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6
traitors
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| 卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人 | |
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7
accusation
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| n.控告，指责，谴责 | |
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suffocation
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| n.窒息 | |
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orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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hemlock
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| n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉 | |
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disciples
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| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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rib
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| n.肋骨，肋状物 | |
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implicated
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| adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的 | |
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conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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outlaws
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| 歹徒，亡命之徒( outlaw的名词复数 )； 逃犯 | |
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peals
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| n.（声音大而持续或重复的）洪亮的响声( peal的名词复数 )；隆隆声；洪亮的钟声；钟乐v.（使）（钟等）鸣响，（雷等）发出隆隆声( peal的第三人称单数 ) | |
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18
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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wayfarers
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| n.旅人，（尤指）徒步旅行者( wayfarer的名词复数 ) | |
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sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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22
secreted
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| v.（尤指动物或植物器官）分泌( secrete的过去式和过去分词 )；隐匿，隐藏 | |
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23
barricaded
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| 设路障于，以障碍物阻塞( barricade的过去式和过去分词 )； 设路障[防御工事]保卫或固守 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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25
bemoans
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| v.为（某人或某事）抱怨( bemoan的第三人称单数 )；悲悼；为…恸哭；哀叹 | |
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victuals
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| n.食物；食品 | |
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piques
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| v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的第三人称单数 )；激起（好奇心） | |
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soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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30
overthrown
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| adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
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dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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cistern
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| n.贮水池 | |
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33
tinkling
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| n.丁当作响声 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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overcast
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| adj.阴天的，阴暗的，愁闷的；v.遮盖，（使）变暗，包边缝；n.覆盖，阴天 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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prow
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| n.(飞机)机头，船头 | |
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38
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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39
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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40
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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41
rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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42
rumbling
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| n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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43
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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44
attired
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| adj.穿着整齐的v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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46
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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47
rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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48
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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49
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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50
pebble
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| n.卵石，小圆石 | |
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51
loft
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| n.阁楼，顶楼 | |
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52
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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53
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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54
outlawed
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| 宣布…为不合法（outlaw的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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55
patriots
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| 爱国者，爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 ) | |
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56
magistrate
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| n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官 | |
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magistrates
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| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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58
purge
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| n.整肃，清除，泻药，净化；vt.净化，清除，摆脱；vi.清除，通便，腹泻，变得清洁 | |
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cosy
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| adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的 | |
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60
bourgeois
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| adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子 | |
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61
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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62
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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63
proscribed
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| v.正式宣布（某事物）有危险或被禁止( proscribe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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64
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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protracted
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| adj.拖延的；延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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66
vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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67
illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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68
lucidly
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| adv.清透地，透明地 | |
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copiously
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| adv.丰富地，充裕地 | |
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70
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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71
incompetent
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| adj.无能力的，不能胜任的 | |
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72
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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flare
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| v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发 | |
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74
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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75
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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76
outlawry
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| 宣布非法，非法化，放逐 | |
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insurgent
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| adj.叛乱的，起事的；n.叛乱分子 | |
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attest
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| vt.证明，证实；表明 | |
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79
deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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80
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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81
scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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82
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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83
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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84
muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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85
trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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86
avalanche
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| n.雪崩，大量涌来 | |
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87
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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88
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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89
scarcity
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| n.缺乏，不足，萧条 | |
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90
forfeits
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| 罚物游戏 | |
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plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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92
trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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94
tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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95
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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96
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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accomplices
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| 从犯，帮凶，同谋( accomplice的名词复数 ) | |
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