"[78] -- At the end, he sees more clearly still:
"On a day like this I organized the Revolutionary Tribunal: I ask
pardon for it of God and man. - In Revolutions, authority remains
with the greatest scoundrels. - It is better to be a poor fisherman
than govern men."[79]
But he has aspired to govern them; he constructed a new machine for
the purpose, and, deaf to its squeals, it worked in conformity with
the structure and the impulse he gave to it. It towers before him,
this sinister machine, with its vast wheel and iron cogs grinding all
France, their multiplied teeth pressing out each individual life, its
steel blade constantly rising and falling, and, as it plays faster and
faster, daily exacting a larger and larger supply of human material,
while those who furnish this supply are held to be as insensible and
as senseless as itself. This Danton cannot, will not be. - He gets
out of the way, diverts himself, gambles,[80] forgets; he supposes
that the titular decapitators will probably consent to take no notice
of him; in any event they do not pursue him; "they would not dare do
it." " No one must lay hands on me, I am the ark." At the worst, he
prefers "to be guillotined rather than guillotine.
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