CHAPTER IX
FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE
The giant stranger who had talked to Henriette and made friends with de Vaudrey was Jacques Danton. He and his colleague, Maximilien Robespierre, were destined to be the outstanding figures of the French Revolution. It is worth while to stop here for a little and consider these two men in their historical aspects and for the profound influence which they exerted on the lives of our characters.
As the storm clouds blacken the sky and the sullen sea (not yet lashed to fury) is ridged in deep, advancing breakers, the mariner’s eye discerns these stormy petrels flying about or momentarily perched on the masts of the Ship of State.
Mark them well––Danton and Robespierre: today, merely “esurient advocates,” petty men of law come up from the provinces to win their fortunes in Paris; tomorrow, leaders of faction; some months or years later, the rulers of France!
PIERRE BECOMES THE DEVOTED WORSHIPPER OF
LOUISE WHOM HE HAS SAVED FROM THE RIVER
Danton––“the huge, brawny figure, through whose black brows and rude flattened face there looks a waste energy as of Hercules not yet furibund.”