original fellow-man, of the Governing sort,
high-chancellor, king, kaiser, secretary of the home or the foreign
department, ever shewed such a phasis as Clerk Tallien, Procureur
Manuel, future Procureur Chaumette, here in this Sand-waltz of the
Twenty-five millions, now do? O brother mortals,--thou Advocate Panis,
friend of Danton, kinsman of Santerre; Engraver Sergent, since called
Agate Sergent; thou Huguenin, with the tocsin in thy heart! But, as
Horace says, they wanted the sacred memoir-writer (sacro vate); and we
know them not. Men bragged of August and its doings, publishing them in
high places; but of this September none now or afterwards would
brag. The September world remains dark, fuliginous, as Lapland
witch-midnight;--from which, indeed, very strange shapes will evolve
themselves.

Understand this, however: that incorruptible Robespierre is not wanting,
now when the brunt of battle is past; in a stealthy way the seagreen man
sits there, his feline eyes excellent in the twilight. Also understand
this other, a single fact worth many: that Marat is not only there, but
has a seat of honour assigned him, a tribune particuliere. How changed
for Marat; lifted from his dark cellar into this luminous 'peculiar
tribune!' All dogs have their day; even rabid dogs. Sorrowful, incurable
Philoctetes Marat; without whom Troy cannot be taken! Hither, as a main
element of the Governing Power, has Marat been raised. Royalist types,
for we have 'suppressed' innumerable Durosoys, Royous, and even clapt
them in prison,--Royalist types replace the worn types often snatched
from a People's-Friend in old ill days. In our 'peculiar tribune' we
write and redact: Placards, of due monitory terror; Amis-du-Peuple (now
under the name of Journal de la Republique); and sit obeyed of men.
'Marat,' says one, 'is the conscience of the Hotel-de-Ville.' Keeper,
as some call it, of the Sovereign's Conscience;--which surely, in such
hands, will not lie hid in a napkin!

Two great movements, as we said, agitate this distracted National mind:
a rushing against domestic Traitors, a rushing against foreign Despots.
Mad movements both, restrainable by no known rule; strongest passions
of human nature driving them on: love, hatred; vengeful sorrow, braggart
Nationality also vengeful,--and pale Panic over all! Twelve Hundred
slain Patriots, do they not, from their dark catacombs there, in
Death's dumb-shew, plead (O ye Legislators) for vengeance? Such