DANTON. Idiots! To accuse Danton and Desmoulins of conspiring against the Republic! So Barère is a patriot now, and Danton an aristocrat. France won't be humbugged like that for very long! [_To one of the Jury._] Do you think we are conspirators? See, he smiles. He doesn't believe it.--Write that he laughed! FOUQUIER-TINVILLE [_in the midst of his work_]. I beg you to cease your personal conversations. It is against the law. DANTON. Do you dare tell your father how to make children? I was the one who organized this court; I ought to know how to behave in it. CAMILLE. I am beginning to take pleasure in life again. A moment ago, everything was dark; I felt as if I were already in the grave. DANTON. It isn't that everything is light: you yourself have changed. You didn't loom very large on the horizon. CAMILLE. I am ashamed of my weakness. My flesh is feeble. DANTON. You're a sly one! You wanted to become an object of sympathy to the women! See that girl there making eyes at you! HÉRAULT [_softly_]. My poor friends, I really pity you. DANTON. Why, my handsome fellow? HÉRAULT. You're selling the bear-skin, when your own is already disposed of. DANTON. My skin? Yes, I know, there are many who would like it. Saint-Just especially. Well, let him come and take it, and if he succeeds, let him make a rug of it. HÉRAULT. Why bother? [_He shrugs his shoulders and lapses into silence. Meanwhile,_ FOUQUIER-TINVILLE _has finished his letter, which is taken out by a guard._] JUDGE. While we await the Convention's answer, let us continue. [_The gendarmes make the prisoners sit down again. He says to_ PHILIPPEAUX.] Your name and occupation? PHILIPPEAUX. Pierre-Nicolas Philippeaux, former judge at Le Mans, representative in the Convention. JUDGE. Your age? PHILIPPEAUX. Thirty-five. JUDGE. You are charged with having paralyzed the national defense, during your mission in La Vendée; you attempted to throw the Committee of Public Safety into disrepute, by means of insulting pamphlets; you were a conspirator with Danton and Fabre in their attempt to restore the royalty. PHILIPPEAUX. I exposed the indignation of the public against the brigandage of certain generals. It was my duty, and I accomplished it. JUDGE. In this implacable struggle for France, your duty was to do everything in your power to aid the nation. You tried to hinder it. PHILIPPEAUX. Ronsin and Rossignol are a dishonor to humanity. FOUQUIER-TINVILLE. You were not a representative of humanity, but of the nation. PHILIPPEAUX. My nation is humanity. JUDGE. Did those you pitied, the Royalists who were crushed by Rossignol, think of humanity? PHILIPPEAUX. There is no excuse for crime. FOUQUIER-TINVILLE. Victory is. PHILIPPEAUX. I accuse you. CAMILLE. Before all the people, I denounce these infamies! FOUQUIER-TINVILLE [_with a shrug_]. Let the people judge. [_The People are divided: many applaud_ FOUQUIER-TINVILLE _and converse among themselves_.]