"If I do not save you in spite of yourself, it shall be accomplished," replied Gilbert.
Saluting her for the last time, he went forth, and the door banged to with that lugubrious sound peculiar to prison doors.
[CHAPTER XXIII.]
THE DEATH OF THE COUNTESS.
In the night, while Gilbert was vainly trying to save Andrea, the Commune, unable to secure Danton's help, formed a committee of vigilance, including Marat, though he was not a member of the Commune. But his name enthroned murder, and showed the frightful development of his power.
The first order of this committee was to have twenty-four prisoners removed from the abbey, and brought before them at the mayor's offices—now the police prefecture building.
It was expected that they would be set upon in the streets, and the butchery there begun would be introduced into the prisons.
Marat's "barkers," as they were called, in vain, however, shouted as the hacks went along:
"Look at the traitors—the accomplices of the Prussians! There they go who are surrendering our towns, slaying our wives and babes, and will do it here if you leave them in the rear when you march to the border."
But, as Danton said, massacres are a scarce bird, and the incitement only brought out more uproar.