Page:Voices of Revolt - Volume 1.djvu/41

 Rh of Robespierre did not understand this fact; they desired revenge for Hébert; but Maximilien's grave became their last resting place also.

The direct object aimed at by Maximilien, the Republic of Virtue, was a Utopia, but just as there may exist in the realm of thought Utopias far more real than the most pregnant thought of the proudest and most self-complacent "Realpolitiker," so history presents cases of Utopians whose domination bequeaths more to those who follow than does the domination of the most consolidated and most carefully calculating "Realpolitiker." Only this Republic of Virtue had been able to withstand the allurements of peace, of corruption and compromise.

When the powers of the past, the Royalists, united with the powers of the future, the elements of the bourgeois republic liberated by the Revolution, to overthrow Maximilien in the session of the Convention held on 9 Thermidor, a member of the Convention shouted: "Robespierre, it is Danton's blood that chokes you!" Maximilien did not grow pale and terrified, as is reported by the chroniclers. Instead, he answered, "Where were you when Danton was sentenced, you cowards?" He himself demanded the indictment that meant his death.

All the intimate friends of the Incorruptible, Saint-Just, Le Bas, the younger Robespierre, the lame Couton, arose and demanded that they also be indicted, All were arrested.