"Do you think so?"
"Without doubt. We are the minority, and we should commit an act which belongs to the majority. We are a part of the Assembly. We should be acting as though we were the entire Assembly. We who condemn all usurpation should ourselves become usurpers. We should put our hands upon a functionary whom the Assembly alone has the right of arresting. We, the defenders of the Constitution, we should break the Constitution. We, the men of the Law, we should violate the Law. It is a coup d'état."
"Yes, but a coup d'état for a good purpose."
"Evil committed for a good purpose remains evil."
"Even when it succeeds?"
"Above all when it succeeds."
"Why?"
"Because it then becomes an example."
"You do not then approve of the Eighteenth Fructidor?"
"No."