ROBESPIERRE [making an effort at impartiality]. I think it no more than right to take Danton's past services into account.
SAINT-JUST. The more good a man does, the greater his obligation to continue. Woe be unto him who has once defended the cause and the people, and abandons them afterward! He is a greater criminal than the man who consistently fought against it. For he once knew the good, and has wilfully betrayed it.
ROBESPIERRE. Hébert's death stirred up public sympathy. The police reports I received inform me that our enemies are profiting by the confusion of the people, who have been suddenly enlightened, in order to shake their faith in their true friends. Everything nowadays is open to suspicion; even the memory of Marat. We must be prudent, and take care not to add to the general suspicion by internal quarrels.
SAINT-JUST. Let us put an end to suspicion with the death of the suspects.
VADIER [aside, glancing at ROBESPIERRE]. The coward! He's afraid to touch his aristocratic friends! Cromwell keeps with the majority! If he persists I'll guillotine a hundred toads in his pond!
ROBESPIERRE. A head like his does not fall without making the State feel it.
BILLAUD-VARENNE [suspiciously and with violence]. Are you afraid, Robespierre?
VADIER [inciting BILLAUD-VARENNE]. Ask him, Billaud, if he uses Danton like a mattress to hide behind, and escape the bullets?
BILLAUD-VARENNE [brutally]. Speak out: You are afraid of being exposed by Danton's fall? You stick close to him! Danton diverts the attention—and the blows—from you, eh?
ROBESPIERRE. I take no notice of such slander. What do I care for the dangers? What is my life to me? But I have some experience from the past, and I am looking into the future. You are bloodthirsty monsters; your hatred blinds you. You think of yourselves, and not of the Republic.