She stood boldly in front of Danton, put her hands on the hilt of her sabre, and said, “If thou art Solomon, build the temple. We have space enough on the site of the Bastille, or better on the Field of the Federation. I will head the subscription.”
She took a gold chain from off her neck, and threw it to Danton.
“I ask to speak,” said a tall, fair man, with a strong German accent; “to support the proposition of the Citizen Thèroigne.”
“Citizen Anacharsis Clootz will address the meeting,” said Danton. “Place to the orator of the human race.”
The Prussian Baron mounted the rostrum.
“Look!” said Drouet; “there is a republican who has a hundred thousand crowns a year, and yet they say that only the bootless and stockingless are revolutionists.”
“Yes,” said he, with a soft smile and quiet voice, which contrasted with the harshness of the former speaker; “yes, I second the motion of Citizen Thèroigne. The temple should be built in Paris. Why was Paris built at an equal distance between the Pole and the Equator, if not to be the centre of attraction for all men? At Paris will one day assemble the Etats Généraux of all the world. You are laughing, Camille, you eternal grinner. The day is not so distant as you suppose. Oh, that the Tower of London may fall as did the Bastille! Oh, that a second Cromwell may rise from insignificance into power, and the tyrant of a day will be seen no more! When the tricolor of liberty floats, not over England and France alone, but over all the world, there will then no longer be provinces, soldiers, and vessels of war; here will be a people, and better than that, a family. It will then be as easy to go from Paris to Pekin as from Bordeaux to Strasbourg; the shores of the ocean will be brought together by a bridge of ships; and the East and the West will embrace on the Champ de la Fédération. Rome was the queen of nations by force of arms; Paris will be the same by dint of peace. Think not that this is mere imagination, oh, my brothers! No, the more I think over the matter, the more sure am I that I am right; and the more I believe in the possibility of one great and united nation. Oh, listen to the voice of reason; may patriotism warm your hearts to build up a temple which will hold all the representatives of the human race. Then ten thousand men will suffice to represent the universe!”
“Bravo! bravo!” cried all from all sides.
“There are plenty of heads to chop off here and there,” said Marat.
“Ye-ye-yes,” Stammered Camille Desmoulins; “six hundred yes-yes-yesterday, nineteen thousand four hun-hundred to-day; and if a to-morrow arrives, there will be fif-fif-fifty thousand.”