WESTERMANN [_calming himself with a violent effort, though his voice trembles with anger and grief_]. I feel remorse for only one thing: having sacrificed my life to an ungrateful nation. I have suffered for it during the past thirty years. I've gone through every form of misery. Ten times I have saved the country from invasion. It never recognized my services. The first impostor that comes along denounces me; they believe anonymous letters from soldiers I punished for cowardice; they accuse me, threaten me, degrade me from my rank, while damned little rapscallions are promoted over my head. I must obey Rossignol, a stupid little goldsmith who knows nothing about war, whose reputation is made on his silly blunders. All his titles merely prove the vileness of his origin. Kléber, Dubayet, and Marceau are wasting away in some petty position, and that shopkeeper Niort commands both the armies! ROBESPIERRE. The Republic places more confidence in a commander with true Republican loyalty than in mere military heads. WESTERMANN. What confidence does the Republic place in Rossignol's defeats? ROBESPIERRE. The responsibility for them does not rest on Rossignol's shoulders, but upon those who are about him. If Kléber, Dubayet, and Westermann are so proud of their ability, why do they not put it at the service of the general whom the nation has placed at their head? WESTERMANN. So you want to deprive us of our just glory? ROBESPIERRE. Yes. WESTERMANN. Confess, you are afraid of military glory! You want to minimize it! ROBESPIERRE. Yes. WESTERMANN [_with a sneer_]. Lawyers might be jealous, eh? ROBESPIERRE. It is an insult to reason, and a menace to freedom. What has made you so proud? You are only doing your duty. Do you risk your life? The heads of every one of us are the stakes in the desperate game we are playing against despotism. Do you deserve any more credit than we in risking your life? We are all devoted to liberty or to death. You, like us, are an instrument of the Revolution, the great knife that is to cleave a way through the enemy for the Republic. It is a terrible task, but it must be accepted bravely, and humbly. You have no more right to be proud of your cannon than we of our guillotine. WESTERMANN. You outrage the grandeur of war. ROBESPIERRE. Nothing is grand but virtue. No matter where it resides--in soldiers, workingmen, legislators--the Republic honors it alone. But the criminals must tremble. Nothing protects them from its just wrath, neither their titles nor their swords. WESTERMANN. Are you threatening me? ROBESPIERRE. I was speaking of no one in particular. On his head be it who recognizes himself!