Page:Rolland - Two Plays of the French Revolution.djvu/172

166 to the laws of the nation together with the rest.

am a representative of the nation, and I have a right to speak for her.

owe it an example in obeying the law.

know only too well how those laws are made. We are all lawyers, Robespierre; we know what masquerades beneath the majesty of the law. I would laugh seeing us together here, if I did not think of the tears that are shed at the comedy we now play. We cost mankind too much. Virtue itself is not worth the price we pay for it—and crime, all the more so.

who could not accomplish this task had no business undertaking it. But he who accepts, should march straight ahead and say nothing, until he falls crushed with its weight.

am willing to sacrifice myself, but not others.

-by.—And—remember Hérault.

do you mention Hérault?

is arrested.

and ? He just left this house!

know.

has he done? Maximilien, what is his crime?

kept a proscript in his house.

did his duty.

Committee has done its duty.

[no longer able to restrain himself