20 Charles Kuhlmann 



cause of the friends he had left behind, many of whom it was 

 impossible to distinguish from the patriots. "What frightens 

 me most," he exclaimed, "is that which seems to reassure every- 

 one else. . . . Tt is that this morning all our enemies speak 

 the same language as ourselves. All are reunited, all wear the 

 same countenance." The minority long since and the entire Na- 

 tional Assembly with its committees had shown by its action that 

 morning that it was in the plot with the king for the destruction 

 of liberty. "And as if this coalition were not enough, I know 

 that presently it will be proposed that you unite with all your 

 most notorious enemies ; in a moment, all of '89, the mayor, the 

 general, the ministers, it is said, will arrive ! How can we es- 

 cape ?" He concluded by saying that he knew that in the denun- 

 ciations he had just made he had drawn a thousand assassins 

 upon himself, but he would receive death almost as a blessing 

 because it would spare him the sight of the evils he saw were 

 inevitable. Upon this, the eight hundred or more members pres- 

 ent arose and swore that they would sacrifice their lives in pro- 

 tecting him.^ 



As Robespierre concluded, the arrival of the deputies was an- 

 nounced, whereupon Danton sprang to his feet and exclaimed : 

 "Gentlemen, if the traitors present themselves here I take the 

 formal engagement with you to leave my head upon the scaffold 

 or prove that theirs ought to fall at the feet of the nation they 

 have betrayed." Seeing Lafayette among those who had en- 

 tered, he violently apostrophised him, going over the entire list 

 of grievances the radical members of the club had long held 

 against him. "And you, M. Lafayette, who only recently re- 

 sponded for the person of the king with your head, do you pay 

 your debt in appearing in this assembly? You have sworn that 

 the king would not depart. Either you have betrayed your coun- 

 try or you are stupid in having answered for a person for whom 

 you could not answer. In the more favorable case, you are de- 

 clared incapable of commanding us. . . . France can be 

 free without you. Your power weighs upon the eighty-four de- 

 partments. Your reputation has passed from pole to pole. Do 



1 Revolutions de France ct de Brabant, no. 82. Aulard, II, 553. 



248' 



