Page:Rolland - Two Plays of the French Revolution.djvu/217

Rh will wait for Desmoulins. You have no right to murder people without hearing them.

know he is sensitive and very impressionable. You are trying to take advantage of his weakness. You won't do a thing to him while we still live.

[ironically the duel of the Emperor Commodius who, armed with a cavalry sword, forced his enemy to fight him with a fencing-foil tipped with cork.

!

yourself, hangman!—People, protect our rights, the sacred rights of the prisonerThe People shout: "Bravo! Bravo!"]

[rubbing  hands, my boy!

[still nervous, but pulling himself together, he grasps  hand, smiles at him, and rises you, friends, I feel much better now. You have given me strength.—That, monsters, is what you will never have: the affection of the people. You accuse me of having spoken my mind? I am proud of it. Faithful to the Republic, which I founded, I will remain free, no matter what it costs me. You say I have insulted liberty? I have said that liberty meant happiness, reason, equality, and justice. I have committed these outrages, yes! You see, oh people, how I am rewardedThe People acclaim him with Bravos.]

must not address the people.

should I address? The aristocrats? I begged the Committee to be merciful, for I