CAMILLE. Near the window—that young man—
DANTON. That impudent rascal, with a shock of hair over his eyes, that law-clerk with his arm around a woman's waist?
CAMILLE. Nothing—nothing—hallucinations: I saw, I thought I saw—myself—
DANTON. Yourself?
CAMILLE. I imagined I was in his place, at the trial of the Girondins—my victims—Oh, Danton! [Meanwhile the documents have been handed to all the jurymen.]
JUDGE. Fabre, do you still deny the accusations?
FABRE D'EGLANTINE [quietly, ironically, but wearily] There is no need of my explaining it all again: you would refuse to listen; you have already made up your mind. I showed you just now that the true version of the decree which I made out had been changed, added to, and corrected, by traitors. That is evident to any one who will take the trouble to look at the papers dispassionately and in a spirit of justice. But there is no one of that sort here: I know very well that I was condemned in advance. I was unlucky enough to incur Robespierre's displeasure, and it is your business to pander to his egotism. I know this is the end. But I am tired of life, it has brought me too much suffering for me to make an effort to preserve it.
FOUQUIER-TINVILLE. You are outraging justice, and you slander Robespierre. It is not Robespierre who accuses you of corruption: it is Cambon. It is not Robespierre who accuses you of conspiracy: it is Billaud-Varenne. Your propensity for intrigue is well-known. It has often led you to plot and conspire and write dangerous plays.
FABRE D'EGLANTINE. Silence! Ne sutor ultra crepidam. Messieurs, you my audience, I call you to witness: have not my plays diverted you? Fouquier can take my head from me, but not my Philinte!
FOUQUIER-TINVILLE. Some abnormal form of curiosity has led you to consider the Nation's Assembly as a theater, where you sought to play upon the secret springs of the soul. You made use of everything: the ambition of certain people, the laziness of others; anxiety, envy, everything suited your ends. This impudent cleverness of yours has revealed you as the leader of an organized counter-revolution, either because your effrontery or your brazen humor were pleased to run counter to the established order—through your unhealthy disdain of reason—or rather your confessed aristocratic ideas, and your cupidity—nourished for a long time by money from Pitt for the ruin of the Republic. In 'ninety-two you were discovered conspiring with the enemy. Danton sent you to Dumouriez in order to carry on your criminal negotiations, which saved the Prussians, who were practically defeated. This now brings us to the other prisoners. I must leave you now, as they are anxious for me to tear away their masks. I shall come to you again before long, and show the center of this vast network of intrigues. [The prisoners are agitated, and the spectators become more attentive. DANTON is seen speaking words of encouragement to his friends.]