he orator cast his eyes around. Ho! he will soon arouse that apathy.
He proceeds, he praises, he pities himself no more. He denounces,--he
accuses. Overflooded with his venom, he vomits it forth on all. At home,
abroad, finances, war,--on all! Shriller and sharper rose his voice,--

"A conspiracy exists against the public liberty. It owes its strength
to a criminal coalition in the very bosom of the Convention; it has
accomplices in the bosom of the Committee of Public Safety...What is the
remedy to this evil? To punish the traitors; to purify this committee;
to crush all factions by the weight of the National Authority; to
raise upon their ruins the power of Liberty and Justice. Such are the
principles of that Reform. Must I be ambitious to profess them?--then
the principles are proscribed, and Tyranny reigns amongst us! For what
can you object to a man who is in the right, and has at least this
knowledge,--he knows how to die for his native land! I am made to combat
crime, and not to govern it. The time, alas! is not yet arrived when men
of worth can serve with impunity their country. So long as the knaves
rule, the defenders of liberty will be only the proscribed."

For two hours, through that cold and gloomy audience, shrilled the
Death-speech. In silence it began, in silence closed. The enemies of the
orator were afraid to express resentment; they knew not yet the exact
balance of power. His partisans were afraid to approve; they knew not
whom of their own friends and relations the accusations were designed to
single forth. "Take care!" whispered each to each; "it is thou whom
he threatens." But silent though the audience, it was, at the first,
wellnigh subdued. There was still about this terrible man the spell
of an overmastering will. Always--though not what is called a great
orator--resolute, and sovereign in the use of words; words seemed as
things when uttered by one who with a nod moved the troops of Henriot,
and influenced the judgment of Rene Dumas, grim President of the
Tribunal. Lecointre of Versailles rose, and there was an anxious
movement of attention; for Lecointre was one of the fiercest foes of the
tyrant. What was the dismay of the Tallien faction; what the complacent
smile of Couthon,--when Lecointre demanded only that the oration should
be printed! All seemed paralyzed. At length Bourdon de l'Oise, whose
name was doubly marked in the black list of the Dictator, stalked to the
tribune, and moved t