PHILIPPEAUX. They are not judges, but butchers.
DANTON [to FOUQUIER-TINVILLE] You have not read it all. There is something else. The answer! The answer to our demand!
JUDGE. Silence!
FOUQUIER-TINVILLE. The Convention communicates the following letter, received by the Committees from the police department, which shall be read in order that the court may understand the perils besetting the cause of Liberty. [Reads:] "Commune of Paris. We, the administrators of the police department, having received a letter from the concierge of the Luxembourg prison, immediately went to the said prison, and brought before us Citizen Laflotte, former minister to the Republic of Florence, who has been confined there for the past six days. He declared to us that last night, between the hours of six and seven, as he WAS in the room of Arthur Dillon, having taken the aforesaid Dillon to one side, told him that it was necessary to resist oppression, that the good men detained in the Luxembourg and other prisons ought to join forces; that Desmoulins' wife had placed a thousand écus at his disposal, in order to arouse the people in the neighborhood of the Revolutionary Tribunal—"
CAMILLE [furiously]. The scoundrels! They are not satisfied with murdering me! They are trying to murder my wife!
DANTON [shaking his fist at FOUQUIER-TINVILLE]. Scoundrels, scoundrels! They've invented this to ruin us! [The People are in a fury of indignation.]
FOUQUIER-TINVILLE [continuing, as he makes efforts to arouse the interest of the audience]—"Laflotte pretended to enter into their plans in order to become better acquainted with them. Dillon, believing that he had made a convert to his infamous plot, told him of various plans. Laflotte declares his willingness to reveal these details to the Committee of Public Safety—" [The People drown out his voice.]
CAMILLE [raving like a madman]. Monsters! [He crumples the papers in his hand and throws them at FOUQUIER-TINVILLE'S head. He says to the People:] Help! Help!
DANTON [roaring]. Cowards! Cut-throats! Why not bind us to these benches, and cut our throats!
PHILIPPEAUX. Tyranny!