DANTON [_aside to_ DESMOULINS]. Keep your mouth shut! You're throwing stones in my garden. CAMILLE [_astounded_]. How is that? DANTON. I said what was necessary. JUDGE [_to_ WESTERMANN]. Prisoner, stand up. WESTERMANN. I? Well, forward march! JUDGE. Your name? WESTERMANN. You know my name very well. JUDGE. Your name? WESTERMANN [_with a shrug_]. Always mixing things up! Ask the people! JUDGE. You are François-Joseph Westermann, native of Alsace, brigadier-general. You are forty-three years old. You were to have been the sword of this conspiracy. Danton recalled you to Paris to command the soldiers in the counter-revolution. You committed atrocities in your army. You were the cause of the defeat at Châtillon. Together with Philippeaux, you attempted to kill the patriots whom it was your duty to defend. Your record is very bad. You have been three times accused of theft. WESTERMANN. You swine, you lie! JUDGE. I shall have you sent back to your cell for insulting the law, and try you without hearing your defense. WESTERMANN. I was a soldier at the age of fifteen. On the tenth of August I commanded the people when we took the Tuileries. I fought at Jemmapes. Dumouriez deserted me in Holland, surrounded by the enemy, and I brought my legion to Antwerp. Then I was in La Vendée; I made trouble for the brigands of Charette and Cathelineau. Savenay, Ancenis, and Le Mans are strewn with their carcasses. So the damned pigs accuse me of being cruel? I was more than that: I was ferocious toward cowards. Do you ask for proofs against me? Here they are: I charged my cavalry through our retreating soldiers at Pontorson. I slashed the face of a cowardly officer at Châtillon. I would have burned my whole army, if necessary, in order to be victorious. I pillaged, you say? What has that to do with you? You are out of your minds. I did my duty as a soldier: I'm not a shopkeeper. My duty was to defend the _Patrie_ by every means; I have accomplished it for the past thirty years, sparing neither my own sweat nor my blood. I received seven wounds--not one in the back--or rather the only one is my accusation. JUDGE. You have often in the presence of witnesses, spoken insultingly of the Convention. You have even threatened to pull down the palace on the heads of the representatives. WESTERMANN. Quite true. I hate that suspicious pack of spouters who stop all action by their jealous stupidity. I said that the Convention needed to be cleaned out and I offered to carry off the manure. FOUQUIER-TINVILLE. Do you confess to having conspired? WESTERMANN. What conspiracy are you talking about? I did my own thinking, and my own doing. I am a friend of none of these others. I've spoken occasionally to Danton, and I admire his energy; but he's a lawyer, too, and I never trust lawyers. France can't be saved by talk, but only by sabers. JUDGE. That is enough. Your case is clear.