death, and was then brought up by an emetic; but has,
notwithstanding, entirely ruined the constitution of Sieur Gamain; so
that he cannot work for his family (as he now bethinks himself).
The recompense of which is 'Pension of Twelve Hundred Francs,' and
'honourable mention.' So different is the ratio of demand and supply at
different times.

Thus, amid obstructions and stimulating furtherances, has the Question
of the Trial to grow; emerging and submerging; fostered by solicitous
Patriotism. Of the Orations that were spoken on it, of the painfully
devised Forms of Process for managing it, the Law Arguments to prove it
lawful, and all the infinite floods of Juridical and other ingenuity and
oratory, be no syllable reported in this History. Lawyer ingenuity is
good: but what can it profit here? If the truth must be spoken, O august
Senators, the only Law in this case is: Vae victis, the loser pays!
Seldom did Robespierre say a wiser word than the hint he gave to that
effect, in his oration, that it was needless to speak of Law, that here,
if never elsewhere, our Right was Might. An oration admired almost to
ecstasy by the Jacobin Patriot: who shall say that Robespierre is not a
thorough-going man; bold in Logic at least? To the like effect, or
still more plainly, spake young Saint-Just, the black-haired, mild-toned
youth. Danton is on mission, in the Netherlands, during this preliminary
work. The rest, far as one reads, welter amid Law of Nations, Social
Contract, Juristics, Syllogistics; to us barren as the East wind. In
fact, what can be more unprofitable than the sight of Seven Hundred
and Forty-nine ingenious men, struggling with their whole force and
industry, for a long course of weeks, to do at bottom this: To stretch
out the old Formula and Law Phraseology, so that it may cover the new,
contradictory, entirely uncoverable Thing? Whereby the poor Formula does
but crack, and one's honesty along with it! The thing that is
palpably hot, burning, wilt thou prove it, by syllogism, to be a
freezing-mixture? This of stretching out Formulas till they crack is,
especially in times of swift change, one of the sorrowfullest tasks poor
Humanity has.

Chapter 3.2.VI.

At the Bar.

Meanwhile, in a space of some five weeks, we have got to another
emerging of the Trial, and a more practical one than ever.

On Tuesday, eleventh of December, the King's Trial has emerged, very
decidedly: into the streets of Paris; in the