Each of the proscribed has a gang
of followers, and suddenly the whole gang are obliged to do a volte-
face; those who were able to show initiative, grovel, while those who
could show mercy, become hardened. Henceforth, amongst the subaltern
Jacobins, the roots of independence, humanity, and loyalty, hard to
extirpate even in an ignoble and cruel nature, are eradicated even to
the last fiber, the revolutionary staff, already so debased, becoming
more and more degraded, until it is worthy of the office assigned to
it. The confidants of H?bert, those who listen to Chaumette, the
comrades of Westermann, the officers of Ronsin, the faithful readers
of Camille, the admirers and devotees of Danton, all are bound to
publicly repudiate their incarcerated friend or leader and approve of
the decree which sends him to the scaffold, to applaud his
calumniators, to overwhelm him on trial: this or that judge or
juryman, who is one of Danton's partisans, is obliged to stifle a
defense of him, and, knowing him to be innocent, pronounce him guilty;
one who had often dined with Desmoulins is not only to guillotine him,
but, in addition to this, to guillotine his young widow.
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