. .
"On the Committee of March 20, "Paillasse, half drunk, gives a
dissertation on the way to carry on the war, and interrogates and
censures the Minister. The poor Minister evades his questions with
caf? gossip and a review of campaigns. These are the men placed at
the head of the government to save the Republic!" - " H...., in his
distraction, had the air of a sly fox inwardly smiling at his own
knavish thoughts. Ruit irrevocabile vulgus . . . Jusque Datum
sceleri." - "Are you keeping silent?" - "Of what use is my glass of
wine in this torrent of ardent spirits? " -
All this is very well, but he did not merely keep silent and abstain.
He voted, legislated and decreed, along with the unanimous Convention;
he was a collaborator, not only passively, through his presence, but
also through his active participation in the acts of the government
which he elected and enthroned, re-elected twelve times, cheered every
week, and flattered daily, authorizing and keeping on to the end its
work of spoliation and massacre.
"Everybody is guilty here," said Carrier in the Convention, "even to
the president's bell."
In vain do they constantly repeat to themselves that they were forced
to obey under penalty of death: the conscience of the purest among
them, if he has any, replies:
"You too, in spite of yourself, I admit; less than others, if you
please, but you were a terrorist, that is to say, a brigand and an
assassin.
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