Some one knocked.
"Come in!" he said, as if awakened from a dream.
It was Lebas, who, all out of breath, came to tell him that the Convention was assembled, and only awaited his arrival.
"Vilate sent me here. I was wondering where to find you."
Robespierre looked up in astonishment.
"It can't be very late," he said.
"Why, it is half-past twelve!"
"Half-past twelve?"
The fête had been fixed for noon. He was then half an hour behind time! And the ironical smiles of some of his colleagues when he appeared in the tribune were not the least bitter consequences of his unpunctuality.
A voice was heard saying—