"Before starting," suggested Payan, "you had better sign this last proclamation. It will serve to rouse the sectioners of the Pignes Quarter."
"Very well! Give it to me!"
Lebas handed him a pen.
Robespierre wrote the first letters of his name, Rob....
He stopped suddenly. A distant sound, as of a trumpet-call, rang out in fearful warning. They look at each other anxiously. What could it be?
A man ran in upon them, in breathless haste. It was Didier, Robespierre's agent.
"The attack!" he panted. "The troops of the Convention are coming upon us, led by Barras!"
"But what does it all mean?" they cried wildly. "What has happened?"
There was not a moment to lose! The assailants were advancing in double column; Leonard Bourdon reading by the light of the torches the decree of the Convention declaring the insurgents outlaws. Yes, outlaws! Anybody was at liberty to fire on them!
"But the people," asked Lebas, "the people are with us?"