Danton had just risen, pushing back his chair impetuously. "Listen!" he cried. "There is but one urgent business,--the Republic is in danger. I have but a single purpose, that is, to deliver France from the enemy. And to accomplish this, all means are fair. All! All! All! I have to deal with every form of danger. I employ every variety of expedient, and when all is to be feared, then I venture all. My thought is a lioness. No half measures, no squeamishness in revolution. Nemesis is not a haughty prude. Let us make ourselves terrible and likewise useful. Does the elephant stop to see where he puts his foot? Let us crush the enemy." Robespierre replied mildly,-- "I am willing." Then he added,-- "The question is, to learn the whereabouts of the enemy." "He is without, and it is I who have driven him there," said Danton. "He is within, and I am watching him," said Robespierre. "I will drive him out again," replied Danton. "One cannot so easily expel an internal enemy." "What, then, is to be done?" "He must be exterminated." "I agree to that," said Danton, in his turn. And he continued,-- "But I tell you he is outside, Robespierre." "And I tell you that he is within, Danton." "Robespierre, he is on the frontier." "He is in the Vendée, Danton." "Calm yourselves," remarked a third voice; "he is everywhere, and you are lost." It was Marat who spoke. Robespierre looked at Marat, and quietly retorted,-- "A truce to generalizations. Let us come to particulars. Here are the facts." "Pedant!" growled Marat. Placing his hand on the paper spread out before him, Robespierre continued:-- "I have just read you the despatches of Prieur de la Marne, and also communicated the information given by Gélambre. Listen, Danton; foreign war is as nothing compared with the dangers of civil war. A foreign war is like a scratch on the elbow, but civil war is an ulcer which eats away your liver. Here is the sum and substance of all that I have just read to you: the Vendée, which has hitherto been divided among many chiefs, is about to concentrate its forces. Henceforth it is to have one leader--" "A sort of central brigand," muttered Danton. "It is the man who landed near Pontorson on the 2d of June. You have seen what he is. Observe, that this landing was contemporary with the arrest of the representatives, Prieur de la Côte d'Or and Romme, at Bayeux, by that treacherous district of Calvados, which took place on the very same day, the 2d of June." "And their transfer to the castle of Caen," said Danton. Robespierre replied:--