Zanoni — Edward Bulwer-Lytton
tarried on his shoulders a pretty little squirrel, attached by a silver chain; Panis bestowed the superfluity of his affections upon two gold pheasants; and Marat, who would not abate one of the three hundred thousand heads he demanded, reared doves! Apropos of the spaniel of Couthon, Duval gives us an amusing anecdote of Sergent, not one of the least relentless agents of the massacre of September. A lady came to implore his protection for one of her relations confined in the Abbaye He scarcely deigned to speak to her, As she retired in despair, she trod by accident on the paw of his favorite spaniel, Sergent, turning round, enraged and furious, exclaimed, ‘* Madam, have you no humanity ?” 4 Not to fatigue the reader with annotations, I may here observe that nearly every sentiment ascribed in the text to Robespierre is to be found expressed in his various discourses.
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Supreme Being: they would have no ruler, even in heaven! Your clear and vigorous intellect saw that, having wrecked an old world, it became necessary to shape a new one. The first step towards construction must be to destroy the destroyers, While we deliberate, your enemies act. Better this very night to attack the handful of gensdarmes that guard them, than to confront the battalions they may raise to-morrow.” “No,” said Robespierre, who recoiled before the determined spirit of Payan; “I have a better and safer plan. This is the 6th of Thermidor; on the 10th — on the 10th, the Convention go in a body to the Féte Décadaire. A mob shall form; the canonniers, the troops of Henriot, the young pupils de l’ Hcole de Mars, shall mix in the crowd. LEasy, then, to strike the conspirators whom we shall designate to our agents. On the same day, too, Fouquier and Dumas shall not rest; and a sufficient number of ‘ the suspect’ to maintain salutary awe, and keep up the revolutionary excitement, shall perish by the glaive of the law. The 10th shall be the great day of action. Payan, of these last culprits, have you prepared a list? ” “Tt is here,” returned Payan, laconically, presenting a paper. Robespierre glanced over it rapidly. “ Collot d’Herbois! — good! Barrére! — ay, it was Barrére who said, ‘ Let us strike: the dead alone never return.’ } Vadier, the savage jester! — good — good! Vadier of the Mountain. He has called me ‘ Mahomet !' Scélérat / blasphemer! ” “ Mahomet is coming to the Mountain,” said Couthon, with his silvery accent, as he caressed his spaniel.
1 “Frappons! il n’y a que les morts qui ne revient pas,” — BaRRERE,
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“ But how is this? Ido not see the name of Tallien? Tallien, — I hate that man; that is,” said Robespierre, correcting himself with the hypocrisy or self-deceit which those who formed the council of this phrasemonger exhibited habitually, even among themselves, — “that is, Virtue and our Country hate him! There is no man in the whole Convention who inspires me with the same horror as Tallien. Couthon, I see a thousand Dantons where Tallien sits! ” “Tallien has the only head that belongs to this deformed body,” said Payan, whose ferocity and crime, like those of St. Just, were not unaccompanied by talents of no common order. “ Were it not better to draw away the head, to win, to buy him, for the time, and dispose of him better when left alone? He may hate you, but he loves money /” “No,” said Robespitrre, writing down the name of Jean Lambert Tallien, with a slow hand that shaped each letter with stern distinctness; “that one head is my necessity |” “T have a smal list here,” said Couthon, sweetly, — “avery small list. You are dealing with the Mountain; it is necessary to make a few examples in the Plain. These moderates are as straws which follow the wind. They turned against us yesterday in the Convention. A little terror will correct the weathercocks. Poor creatures! I owe them no ill-will; I could weep for them. But before all, la chére patrie /” The terrible glance of Robespierre devoured the list which the man of sensibility submitted to him. “ Ah, these are well chosen; men not of mark enough to be regretted, which is the best policy with the relics of that party ; some foreigners too, — yes, they have no parents in Paris. These wives and parents are beginning to
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tarried on his shoulders a pretty little squirrel, attached by a silver chain; Panis bestowed the superfluity of his affections upon two gold pheasants; and Marat, who would not abate one of the three hundred thousand heads he demanded, reared doves! Apropos of the spaniel of Couthon, Duval gives us an amusing anecdote of Sergent, not one of the least relentless agents of the massacre of September. A lady came to implore his protection for one of her relations confined in the Abbaye He scarcely deigned to speak to her, As she retired in despair, she trod by accident on the paw of his favorite spaniel, Sergent, turning round, enraged and furious, exclaimed, ‘* Madam, have you no humanity ?” 4 Not to fatigue the reader with annotations, I may here observe that nearly every sentiment ascribed in the text to Robespierre is to be found expressed in his various discourses.
p. 414
Supreme Being: they would have no ruler, even in heaven! Your clear and vigorous intellect saw that, having wrecked an old world, it became necessary to shape a new one. The first step towards construction must be to destroy the destroyers, While we deliberate, your enemies act. Better this very night to attack the handful of gensdarmes that guard them, than to confront the battalions they may raise to-morrow.” “No,” said Robespierre, who recoiled before the determined spirit of Payan; “I have a better and safer plan. This is the 6th of Thermidor; on the 10th — on the 10th, the Convention go in a body to the Féte Décadaire. A mob shall form; the canonniers, the troops of Henriot, the young pupils de l’ Hcole de Mars, shall mix in the crowd. LEasy, then, to strike the conspirators whom we shall designate to our agents. On the same day, too, Fouquier and Dumas shall not rest; and a sufficient number of ‘ the suspect’ to maintain salutary awe, and keep up the revolutionary excitement, shall perish by the glaive of the law. The 10th shall be the great day of action. Payan, of these last culprits, have you prepared a list? ” “Tt is here,” returned Payan, laconically, presenting a paper. Robespierre glanced over it rapidly. “ Collot d’Herbois! — good! Barrére! — ay, it was Barrére who said, ‘ Let us strike: the dead alone never return.’ } Vadier, the savage jester! — good — good! Vadier of the Mountain. He has called me ‘ Mahomet !' Scélérat / blasphemer! ” “ Mahomet is coming to the Mountain,” said Couthon, with his silvery accent, as he caressed his spaniel.
1 “Frappons! il n’y a que les morts qui ne revient pas,” — BaRRERE,
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“ But how is this? Ido not see the name of Tallien? Tallien, — I hate that man; that is,” said Robespierre, correcting himself with the hypocrisy or self-deceit which those who formed the council of this phrasemonger exhibited habitually, even among themselves, — “that is, Virtue and our Country hate him! There is no man in the whole Convention who inspires me with the same horror as Tallien. Couthon, I see a thousand Dantons where Tallien sits! ” “Tallien has the only head that belongs to this deformed body,” said Payan, whose ferocity and crime, like those of St. Just, were not unaccompanied by talents of no common order. “ Were it not better to draw away the head, to win, to buy him, for the time, and dispose of him better when left alone? He may hate you, but he loves money /” “No,” said Robespitrre, writing down the name of Jean Lambert Tallien, with a slow hand that shaped each letter with stern distinctness; “that one head is my necessity |” “T have a smal list here,” said Couthon, sweetly, — “avery small list. You are dealing with the Mountain; it is necessary to make a few examples in the Plain. These moderates are as straws which follow the wind. They turned against us yesterday in the Convention. A little terror will correct the weathercocks. Poor creatures! I owe them no ill-will; I could weep for them. But before all, la chére patrie /” The terrible glance of Robespierre devoured the list which the man of sensibility submitted to him. “ Ah, these are well chosen; men not of mark enough to be regretted, which is the best policy with the relics of that party ; some foreigners too, — yes, they have no parents in Paris. These wives and parents are beginning to
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