A despot
by instinct and installation, his dogma has consecrated him King ; he
is King by natural and divine right, in the name of eternal verity,
the same as Philip II., enthroned by his religious system and blessed
by his Holy Office. Hence he can abandon no jot or title of his
authority without a sacrifice of principle, nor treat with rebels,
unless they surrender at discretion; simply for having risen against
legitimate authority, they are traitors and villains. And who are
greater rascals the renegades who, after three years of patient
effort, just as the sect finally reaches its goal, oppose its
accession to power![81] At N?mes, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Toulon, and
Lyons, not only have they interfered with or arrested the blow which
Paris struck, but they have put down the aggressors, closed the club,
disarmed the fanatical and imprisoned the leading Maratists; and worse
still, at Lyons and at Toulon, five or six massacreurs, or promoters
of massacre, Ch?lier and Riard, Jassaud, Sylvestre and Lemaille,
brought before the courts, have been condemned and executed after a
trial in which all the forms were strictly adhered to. -- That is the
inexpiable crime; for, in this trial, the "Mountain" is involved; the
principles of Sylvestre and Ch?lier are its principles; what is
accomplished in Paris, they have attempted in the provinces; if they
are guilty, it is also guilty; it cannot tolerate their punishment
without assenting to its own punishment.
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