Soon the decisive hour approached. It was the 7th Thermidor. Six weeks had elapsed since the memorable Fête of the Supreme Being, and the passing of the horrible Prairial law, which had sent hundreds of victims to the scaffold. The Terror was at its height, and France, prostrate before the knife of the guillotine, was awaiting in distracted anxiety the result of the struggle. The guillotine was also waiting, ready to devour whichever of the two parties was vanquished—Robespierre's opponents or Robespierre himself and his partisans.
The Incorruptible, driven to the last extremity, had fixed the battle for the next day, the 8th Thermidor, when he would throw off his mask and accuse his adversaries of the Committee of Public Safety in presence of the Convention. Although he was almost certain of the issue, he deemed it none the less prudent to take infinite precautions, and to put Olivier and the two women in perfect safety, in case of defeat, however impossible it might seem. They must be taken from prison, and all three placed in some secure retreat, out of the reach of danger, from whence they could escape if necessary.
Robespierre thought of the Hôtel de Ville, where he reigned supreme. Behind this, in the Rue du Martroy, were some unoccupied apartments, in a building connected with and forming part of the hotel. Clarisse might live there with her niece and Olivier until they could with safety leave Paris. He unfolded his projects to Lebas, who alone knew of the secret drama which poisoned the private life of the Incorruptible at the very moment when his public career was reaching its climax. Lebas approved the plan.
"I am entirely at your service!"
"Thanks. I was counting on your help. But don't let us be too hasty. To-morrow will be time enough. Everything depends on the sitting. If you see that the majority hesitate from the commencement, go immediately to La Bourbe and take the two women out, then to La Force and see about my son. The apartments are ready. You have only to take them there. But save the women first. Olivier must find his mother and his fiancée when he arrives."
Then taking two papers from his pocket, he added, "Here are the warrants of release."
"Agreed!" said Lebas, after reading them.
Next day at the Convention, Lebas, a parliamentary expert, judged that Robespierre would come out victorious from the contest, nor was he mistaken. The Incorruptible had brought a general accusation, without mentioning names, against members of the Committee of Public Safety and General Security. This was received in anxious silence, a few only daring to protest. But the printing of the speech, and its circulation in all the communes of Paris, was none the less voted. It was an official accusation, by the voice of Robespierre, of his adversaries, before the whole of France. It was victory; and nothing was left but to name the victims.
But the implicated members of the Committee of Public Safety did not give him time. Vadier boldly made for the tribune, followed by Cambon, who, feeling it was a case of kill or cure, played a daring game, and replied to the general accusation of Robespierre by a direct, personal accusation, denouncing him openly to the astonished Assembly. The real traitor, he declared, was this masterful Robespierre, who paralysed the will of the National Convention!
There was a counter-wave of feeling among the members of the Assembly at this public indictment, and censure of their slavish submission to Robespierre. They seemed suddenly to realise their position, and the more daring members, seeing the tide turn, prepared for the fight. Thus the attacked were in their turn attacking.