ed over it rapidly. "Collot d'Herbois!--good!
Barrere!--ay, it was Barrere who said, 'Let us strike: the dead alone
never return.' ('Frappons! il n'y a que les morts qui ne revient
pas.'--Barrere.) Vadier, the savage jester!--good--good! Vadier of the
Mountain. He has called me 'Mahomet!' Scelerat! blasphemer!"

"Mahomet is coming to the Mountain," said Couthon, with his silvery
accent, as he caressed his spaniel.

"But how is this? I do not see the name of Tallien? Tallien,--I hate
that man; that is," said Robespierre, correcting himself with the
hypocrisy or self-deceit which those who formed the council of this
phrase-monger exhibited habitually, even among themselves,--"that is,
Virtue and our Country hate him! There is no man in the whole Convention
who inspires me with the same horror as Tallien. Couthon, I see a
thousand Dantons where Tallien sits!"

"Tallien has the only head that belongs to this deformed body," said
Payan, whose ferocity and crime, like those of St. Just, were not
unaccompanied by talents of no common order. "Were it not better to
draw away the head, to win, to buy him, for the time, and dispose of him
better when left alone? He may hate YOU, but he loves MONEY!"

"No," said Robespierre, writing down the name of Jean Lambert Tallien,
with a slow hand that shaped each letter with stern distinctness; "that
one head IS MY NECESSITY!"

"I have a SMALL list here," said Couthon, sweetly,--"a VERY small
list. You are dealing with the Mountain; it is necessary to make a few
examples in the Plain. These moderates are as straws which follow the
wind. They turned against us yesterday in the Convention. A little
terror will correct the weathercocks. Poor creatures! I owe them no
ill-will; I could weep for them. But before all, la chere patrie!"

The terrible glance of Robespierre devoured the list which the man of
sensibility submitted to him. "Ah, these are well chosen; men not of
mark enough to be regretted, which is the best policy with the relics
of that party; some foreigners too,--yes, THEY have no parents in
Paris. These wives and parents are beginning to plead against us. Their
complaints demoralise the guillotine!"

"Couthon is right," said Payan; "MY list contains those whom it will be
safer to despatch en masse in the crowd assembled at the Fete. HIS list
selects those whom we may prudently consign to the law. Shall it not be
signed at once?"

"It IS signed," said Robespierre, formally