“Is not that the Citizen Aristides?”
“Yes; a faithful fellow, if he would wash himself, and not swear so much.”
“Didst thou not guillotine his brother?”
“But Aristides denounced him.”
“Nevertheless, are such men safe about thy person?”
“Humph! that is true.” And Robespierre, drawing out his pocketbook, wrote a memorandum in it, replaced it in his vest, and resumed,—
“What else of Tallien?”
“Nothing more. He and Legendre, with the unknown, walked to the Jardin Egalite, and there parted. I saw Tallien to his house. But I have other news. Thou badest me watch for those who threaten thee in secret letters.”
“Guerin! hast thou detected them? Hast thou—hast thou—”
And the tyrant, as he spoke, opened and shut both his hands, as if already grasping the lives of the writers, and one of those convulsive grimaces that seemed like an epileptic affection, to which he was subject, distorted his features.