limits. He was returning to, not receding further from, the wiser policy which he was to reassert more explicitly in April, and this speech came half-way between his declarations then and those of the previous autumn. Therefore, though it seems a far cry from a war of propaganda to a war for natural frontiers, it seems unreasonable to represent him as a cynic throwing aside the mask of moderation and resorting to the brute force which was his most congenial weapon.'

CHAPTER XV

1793

KING'S EXECUTION-SPAIN'S INTERVENTION

TYRANT' GIRONDIN

CHARGES AGAINST DANTON-HIS SPEECH IN DEFENCE

For the sake of continuity Danton's speech of January 31 has been noticed in the previous chapter. But he had come back to Paris on January 14, and much else had happened there during the fortnight of his stay. His first act was to speak and vote for the King's execution. Not having had a voice in the debates of the 14th, he did not take part in the voting on the 15th, but he was for no half-measures, as the Girondins were, who voted for death because, like Pilate, they were willing to please the people. Danton condemned him as a traitor guilty of the worst form of treason-alliance with foreigners against his own subjects. Traitors of lower rank were executed; why not he? Celui qui a été l'âme de ces complots mérite-t-il une exception?' Poor Louis was quite incapable of being the soul of anything. The soul of the plots had been his wife. But he had been privy to them. He was the rallyingpoint of invasion and rebellion. On the 17th, even while the votes which decided his doom were being counted, Vergniaud, the President, announced an illtimed letter from the Minister of Spain,' begging for a respite in order that he might obtain the King of Spain's intervention. Vergniaud should have said that the letter was from the Spanish Chargé d'Affaires. The

Assembly, it seems, understood it to come from the Spanish Government. Danton at once rose, saying he was astounded at the impudence of any Power daring to attempt to influence their votes, and that if every one thought as he did they would for this, and this alone, vote at once for war with Spain. Rejetez, rejetez, citoyens, toute proposition honteuse. Point de trans

action avec la tyrannie.'

6

When he had given his vote just before, 'Point de transaction' was in his mind.

Je ne suis point (he said) de cette foule d'hommes d'Etat qui ignorent qu'on ne compose point avec les tyrans, qui ignorent qu'on ne frappe les rois qu'à la tête, qui ignorent qu'on ne doit rien attendre de ceux de l'Europe que par la force de nos armes. Je vote pour la mort du tyran.

Till the end of time different men will think differently of the King and of his judges; but those who condemn Danton must condemn Cromwell too.

When Danton used the word tyrant' it was at a time when classical terms and allusions were on every man's tongue, and he used it not in its now more familiar but in its original sense of a sovereign overriding law. When he spoke of 'hommes d'Etat ' he was alluding to the Girondins. While he had been inspecting the condition of the Belgian army and fostering the movement for incorporation-had been, that is to say, engrossed in matters of high policy-the Rolandists were charging him with amassing wealth partly by embezzlement in Belgium, partly by burglary in Paris.1 And on the 20th there had begun a recrudescence of recriminations concerning the massacres of September.

1 Cf. Appendix B, Charge of Malversation in Belgium.

THE LEPELLETIER' SPEECH

173

Kersaint resigned his seat, saying he could no longer sit with assassins like Marat, as a contrast to whom he pointed to the shining light of Pétion. And the Girondin Gensonné expressed an opinion that 'in punishing the tyrant Louis' the work had been only half done, and would be completed only by the punishment of the cannibals' of September. Tallien retorted by counter-insinuations.

That evening Lepelletier was assassinated for having voted for the King's death, and next day Thuriot fiercely assailed Pétion as a hypocrite who tried to lay his own guilt at other men's doors. Bréard demanded domiciliary visits to discover the plot of which Lepelletier was the victim. No one had named Danton, but he knew what was in the air, and when Pétion had purred his amazement at being supposed to be anything short of immaculate he delivered one of his most famous speeches. After a tribute to Lepelletier and a contemptuous remark that the previous speaker was a weak man whom he had always known as such, and who 'peut s'expliquer sur mon compte comme il jugera convenable,' he added

that Pétion would have done better if he had been more explicit about men who had shown themselves. better servants of the State than himself; and, with respect to the terrible massacres which had been used as a party-weapon for embittering the Departments against Paris, if he had stated plainly that no human power could have arrested what was the fury of a people, and, though terrible and lamentable, was induced by remissness in bringing criminals to justice. A frank and thorough examination of the whole question would have checked a flood of calumny and perhaps saved the Republic from worse misfortune.

Therefore (he proceeded) I challenge you who knew

me as Minister to say if I have not always been the advocate of concord. I call you, Pétion, you Brissot, I call all of you as my witnesses, for at last I am tired of these misunderstandings: I call all of you, I say, that I may no longer be misunderstood. For months I have run the risk of silence, but since I have to specify others by name I am resolved there shall be no more mystery about myself. Be you yourselves my judges. Have I not always shown deference to the old man now Minister of the Interior? Did I not constantly warn you of, did not you constantly agree with me about the fatal acerbity of his temper at the time when at the centre of the Republic it was desirable, it was indispensable that a man whose functions were in some sort those of a Consul should yet be of a disposition to conciliate, to appease, when violent controversies were certain to result from so violent a convulsion? What I said you said too. said too. But, and this is why I blame you, you did not say so openly. Roland, whose good intentions I do not impugn, but of whose nature I mean to speak plainly, Roland, I say, thinks every one a scoundrel and an enemy of his country who is not in love with his own thoughts and opinions. I call on you, dear fellow citizens, on you, Lanthenas, so intimate with Roland, and therefore so unimpeachable a witness, to mark what I say. I demand his deposition, and I base my demand not on calumny but on the judgment of his own friends. I demand in the interest of the Republic that Roland cease to be Minister. Consider if I am likely to say so out of revenge. I appeal to you, citizens, have I ever replied to calumny? Roland, I know, misconstrued me, but what I wish is the good of the Republic, and needing no revenge I seek none. And how can you discredit me when I call Roland's closest friends as witnesses? Roland, because in a too memorable crisis he was indicted, because he feared arrest, has ever since then seen Paris through black spectacles. In his indiscriminate terror he became incapable of discriminating at all, till in his delusions he