BILLAUD-VARENNE. These proofs have just been seized. Read. VADIER [_rubbing his hands_]. The seventh _Vieux Cordelier._ The continuation of the good apostle's Credo. ROBESPIERRE. The idiot! Will he not learn to hold his tongue? BILLAUD-VARENNE [_like a monomaniac_]. The guillotine! SAINT-JUST [_reading the proofs with_ ROBESPIERRE]. Like a prostitute, who cannot but bring dishonor upon herself. ROBESPIERRE. And Danton? BILLAUD-VARENNE. Danton is at it again; he is speaking at the Palais-Royal. He insults Vadier, and me, and all the patriots. Desmoulins is with him. They're all together with the women and Westermann, too. They make obscene allusions to the Committee. The people are gathering about them, and laughing. SAINT-JUST. You hear, Robespierre? ROBESPIERRE [_disdainfully_]. No danger. We shall have time to deliberate in peace before Danton is through drinking. [_Looking again at the proofs._] Why, this is suicide! VADIER. He's gone too far this time! BILLAUD-VARENNE. His head should follow! SAINT-JUST [_reading_]. He compares the members of the Convention to Nero and Tiberius. BILLAUD-VARENNE [_reading_]. He dares to say that we went after Custine on Pitt's orders, and not because Custine was a traitor, but because he was not a worse one. VADIER [_reading_]. "The Committee will reduce the Assembly to the servile condition of a parlement the rebellious members of which are to be thrown into prison." ROBESPIERRE [_correcting them_]. He puts "would reduce," and not "will reduce." VADIER. The same thing. BILLAUD-VARENNE [_reading_]. "See how near is the Committee to ruining the Republic, when it sends two of its Deputies which it cannot bribe to the Luxembourg?" ROBESPIERRE. He says "it can send," and not "it sends." BILLAUD-VARENNE [_pettishly_]. Don't be so particular! SAINT-JUST [_reading_]. He has the effrontery to maintain that "the War-office appointed as heads of the armies the brothers of actresses with whom they had been intimate." VADIER. Disorganizing the defense, reviling the nation in the eyes of foreigners! Can nothing stop his vile tongue! BILLAUD-VARENNE. And the whole thing bristling with demands for clemency, and talk about humanity! VADIER. And his hypocritical tears! Bah! SAINT-JUST. There is no plague of Egypt like a sentimental man! No tyrant brings more harm to mankind. The traitors of the Gironde called themselves merciful, too, when they carried the torch of rebellion through France. ROBESPIERRE. Desmoulins is merely weak, he is not dangerous. I knew him as a child. I know him now. BILLAUD-VARENNE [_suspiciously_]. Do Robespierre's friends enjoy special privileges?