HÉRAULT. Our enemies are virtuous: and that is some consolation: to have our throats cut in the name of principles.
CAMILLE. France hates hypocrisy. Let us beat the pedants and thrash Basile!
PHILIPPEAUX. I have done my duty: let each do his. I dragged to light the brigands of the Western Army, the military staff of Saumur. I have a firm hold on their necks, and only the loss of my own head will force me to release it. I have no illusions: I know what it will cost to attack General Rossignol and his band. The Committee is now lying in wait, but only in order to catch me. I wonder what infamy they are going to saddle me with? I'm all in a fever only to think of it. Let them chop my head if they will, but they must not touch my honor!
HÉRAULT. I'm not so worried as you, Philippeaux. I already know what pretext they have to suppress me. I am so unfortunate as to think that while we may be the enemy of the governments of all Europe, we need not therefore despise every one who does not happen to be French. I had friends abroad, and I did not think it was necessary to break with them, in order to give in to the folly of Billaud-Varenne and others of his ilk. They entered my house, forced the drawers of my desks, stole some letters of a purely friendly nature. But that was enough, and of course I am now a conspirator for the restoration of the King, and receive money from Pitt.
CAMILLE. Are you sure of what you say?
HÉRAULT. Quite sure, Camille. My head is not worth a son.
CAMILLE. But you must hide.
HÉRAULT. There is no hiding-place in the world for a Republican. Kings hound them, and the Republic sends them to the guillotine.
CAMILLE. You lack courage. We are the most popular men of the Republic.
HÉRAULT. Lafayette was popular, too, and Pétion, and Roland. Capet himself was popular. He who was a week ago the people's idol is now dead. Who can flatter himself that he is beloved of those brutes? At moments, you think you see in their troubled eyes some faint reflection of your own thoughts. Whose conscience, at least one day in a lifetime, is not in harmony with the conscience of the masses? But that harmony cannot long exist, and it is folly to try to keep it. The brain of the people is a surging sea, alive with monsters and nightmares.