BILLAUD-VARENNE. The enemies of the people deserve no consideration!
VADIER. Useless bravery in politics is always stupid, and sometimes treasonable.
SAINT-JUST. I won't have it! [He throws his cap to the floor.]
BILLAUD-VARENNE [severely]. Do you then prefer the fight to the welfare of the Republic?
SAINT-JUST. Such attempts require danger; it sanctifies them. A Revolution is a heroic enterprise, in which the leaders walk between the guillotine and immortality. We should be criminals if we were not ready to sacrifice our lives, and the lives of the others, at any moment.
VADIER. Never worry; you are risking enough as it is. If Danton were a prisoner he would incite the people; and never doubt, if he is victorious, he will send you to the block.
SAINT-JUST. I despise the dust I am made of. My heart is the only thing that really belongs to me, and I will pass through life, through blood and murder, without sullying its purity.
BILLAUD-VARENNE [with hard and disdainful severity]. Self-esteem is pure selfishness. It makes no difference to us whether Saint-Just's heart is gullied or not; we are saving the Republic.
SAINT-JUST [with an inquiring look at ROBESPIERRE]. Robespierre!
ROBESPIERRE. My friend, you need fear nothing so far as your soul is concerned. The storm and stress of a Revolution are not dealt with according to ordinary processes of law; we cannot apply moral standards to the force that is now shaping the world on a new foundation. Of course, we must be just; but the individual conscience cannot judge: only the public conscience matters. Our light is in the people: its salvation is our law. We have but one question to ask ourselves: do the people want Danton put down? Once that question is decided, the whole matter is ended. We must wage war to win. Justice means that that which is just shall triumph. We cannot wait: Danton must be laid low. To allow him to arm himself would be to offer our breast to the dagger of an assassin; military and financial despotism would rule the Revolution, and civil wars lay waste our land for a hundred years. We would be hated in history, though we deserve to be loved.