"You should not have done so, it was nothing more serious than usual, only the worry and bother that upset me so." "It was the cross-examination of the Chouan yesterday which unstrung you, I suppose?" "Perhaps; ... it may be.... But, you see, now I am quite well." As the lad was going he called after him. "Now you know, and you won't give it another thought, will you? And not a word, mind, not a word! Now go, child." He was subject to such nightmares then? "Perhaps I don't take enough exercise," he thought, and he resolved to go out at once into the open air. A good walk to the Champs-Elysées would completely revive him. He changed his clothes, shaved, powdered and perfumed himself as usual, and had actually started, but went back and took from a drawer in his desk the draft of the new law which he had prepared the day before, and put it in his pocket. He had decided after reflection not to submit it himself, but to confide it to Couthon, one of the most faithful of his friends on the Committee with Lebas, Saint-Just, and Augustin. Couthon would read the document from the tribune, and this would leave him fresh and fit for the ensuing debate. Having called at Couthon's house, and concluded this arrangement, Robespierre made his way to the Champs-Elysées through the Tuileries with his dog Blount, who gambolled joyously in his new-found freedom after a three days' confinement in the house. The Incorruptible walked quickly and briskly as usual, in spite of the intense heat, which was but little diminished by the shade of the chestnuts lining the avenue. He was already telling over in his mind those among his enemies who would be the first victims of the new law. As to Olivier and the two women, it was quite decided. They should remain in prison in the most absolute secrecy until the time came for him to be master. At the end of the avenue he turned into the Allée de Veuves and went towards the Seine. Blount, who had scented the water, leapt and bounded forward in high glee. On fine summer days the dog used to swim in the river under the eyes of Robespierre. When he reached the banks of the Seine Blount was awaiting him, and at a sign jumped in the water, and the Incorruptible found some release from his harrowing thoughts in watching the gambols of his dog in the river. At the Convention the Bill read by Couthon was received with loud protests, and the subsequent debate opened amid turbulence and uproar. That the judgments of the Revolutionary Tribunal should be accelerated by the suppression of evidence and cross-examinations had already frightened not a few; but when it became a question of transmitting to the Committee of Public Safety the right of life or death, the whole assembly was filled with fear. Up to that time the Convention alone had the right to sit in judgment on a representative of the people! A voice was heard exclaiming-- "If that law is passed, nothing is left but to blow out our brains!"