"Danton? It is he, then, you will avenge? Why did you not protect him, cowards?"
Replies are hurled at him from every corner. Had he not gagged Danton's defenders? Now they were going to avenge him! Now their turn had come!
"Did you not hound him to his death, you curs?" shouts Robespierre, with one last cry of rage.
But a pregnant remark falls on the assembly and hastens the end.
"It is hard work, indeed, to drag down a tyrant!"
There is no more hope for Robespierre.
This interruption recalls the Convention to the danger that threatens them. The turmoil is re-doubled. Tallien, from the tribune, which he has not yet quitted, demands of the president that the traitor's arrest be put to the vote.
"To the vote! To the vote!" echoes through the Hall.
But suddenly an unexpected incident attracts general attention.
A deputy advances to the centre of the semi-circle: "I demand to share my brother's fate, as I have striven to share his nobler deeds."