all the Farmers-General are arrested;' all, and shall give an
account of their monies and incomings; and die for 'putting water in the
tobacco' they sold. (Tribunal Revolutionnaire, du 8 Mai 1794, Moniteur,
No. 231.) Lavoisier begged a fortnight more of life, to finish some
experiments: but "the Republic does not need such;" the axe must do
its work. Cynic Chamfort, reading these Inscriptions of Brotherhood or
Death, says "it is a Brotherhood of Cain:" arrested, then liberated;
then about to be arrested again, this Chamfort cuts and slashes himself
with frantic uncertain hand; gains, not without difficulty, the refuge
of death. Condorcet has lurked deep, these many months; Argus-eyes
watching and searching for him. His concealment is become dangerous
to others and himself; he has to fly again, to skulk, round Paris,
in thickets and stone-quarries. And so at the Village of Clamars, one
bleared May morning, there enters a Figure, ragged, rough-bearded,
hunger-stricken; asks breakfast in the tavern there. Suspect, by the
look of him! "Servant out of place, sayest thou?" Committee-President
of Forty-Sous finds a Latin Horace on him: "Art thou not one of those
Ci-devants that were wont to keep servants? Suspect!" He is haled
forthwith, breakfast unfinished, towards Bourg-la-Reine, on foot: he
faints with exhaustion; is set on a peasant's horse; is flung into his
damp prison-cell: on the morrow, recollecting him, you enter; Condorcet
lies dead on the floor. They die fast, and disappear: the Notabilities
of France disappear, one after one, like lights in a Theatre, which you
are snuffing out.

Under which circumstances, is it not singular, and almost touching, to
see Paris City drawn out, in the meek May nights, in civic ceremony,
which they call 'Souper Fraternel, Brotherly Supper? Spontaneous, or
partially spontaneous, in the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth nights of
this May month, it is seen. Along the Rue Saint-Honore, and main Streets
and Spaces, each Citoyen brings forth what of supper the stingy Maximum
has yielded him, to the open air; joins it to his neighbour's supper;
and with common table, cheerful light burning frequent, and what due
modicum of cut-glasses and other garnish and relish is convenient, they
eat frugally together, under the kind stars. (Tableaux de la Revolution,
para Soupers Fraternels; Mercier, ii. 150.) See it O Night! With
cheerfully pledged wine-cup, hobnobbing to the Reign of Liberty,
Equality,