JUDGE. You must respect the law. You will have a chance to explain later.
FOUQUIER-TINVILLE. Quiet, Danton. You will have to answer the charges, together with the rest who are accused with you.
DANTON. Danton must not be tried for corruption after a pack of blackguards. You might at least give him first place. Danton refuses to be second in anything whatsoever, in virtue or in vice.
PHILIPPEAUX. Don't, Danton. You must be prudent.
JUDGE [to the brothers FREY]. You are Jews by birth, and you came originally from Moravia; your name is Tropuscka. You took the name of Schoenfeld, under which you bought patents of nobility in Austria, and for the time being called yourself Frey. One of your sisters was baptized, and is now being kept by a German baron. The other married Chabot, a former priest, and now a representative in the Convention. You have associated yourself with certain other adventurers of doubtful birth like yourself: Diederischen, who came originally from Holstein, and was employed in a Viennese bank; Gusman, called the Spaniard, who passed as a German nobleman; the former Abbé d'Espagnac, an army contractor. With the help of certain deputies whom you had bribed, you prospered. Chabot served as a go-between for you and his colleagues. He put his own price at 150,000 livres. He gave Fabre d'Eglantine 100,000 of the sum, and Fabre altered the Convention's decree relative to the Compagnie des Indes. I am submitting the original document to the jury.
VADIER [stealthily opening the wicket and beckoning to HANRIOT]. Is all well, Hanriot?
HANRIOT [in an undertone]. Everything, will be satisfactory.
VADIER [pointing to FOUQUIER-TINVILLE and the Court]. They are not baulking?
HANRIOT. Don't worry. I have my eye on them.
VADIER. Good. And don't hesitate; if the prosecutor flinches, arrest him. [He closes the wicket.]