VADIER [_chaffingly_]. True, and like a good sans-culotte he cheerfully shows to the world "What Cæsar shamelessly showed to Nicodemus in his youth, and what long ago the hero of Greece admired in Hephæstos, and Hadrian put into the Pantheon." SAINT-JUST [_angrily_]. Stop your nasty joking! Would you make war on corruption with corruption? VADIER. Now, you aren't going to make me recite Rousseau to you? ROBESPIERRE [_making an effort at impartiality_]. I think it no more than right to take Danton's past services into account. SAINT-JUST. The more good a man does, the greater his obligation to continue. Woe be unto him who has once defended the cause and the people, and abandons them afterward! He is a greater criminal than the man who consistently fought against it. For he once knew the good, and has wilfully betrayed it. ROBESPIERRE. Hébert's death stirred up public sympathy. The police reports I received inform me that our enemies are profiting by the confusion of the people, who have been suddenly enlightened, in order to shake their faith in their true friends. Everything nowadays is open to suspicion; even the memory of Marat. We must be prudent, and take care not to add to the general suspicion by internal quarrels. SAINT-JUST. Let us put an end to suspicion with the death of the suspects. VADIER [_aside, glancing at_ ROBESPIERRE]. The coward! He's afraid to touch his aristocratic friends! Cromwell keeps with the majority! If he persists I'll guillotine a hundred toads in his pond! ROBESPIERRE. A head like his does not fall without making the State feel it. BILLAUD-VARENNE [_suspiciously and with violence_]. Are you afraid, Robespierre? VADIER [_inciting_ BILLAUD-VARENNE]. Ask him, Billaud, if he uses Danton like a mattress to hide behind, and escape the bullets? BILLAUD-VARENNE [_brutally_]. Speak out: You are afraid of being exposed by Danton's fall? You stick close to him! Danton diverts the attention--and the blows--from you, eh? ROBESPIERRE. I take no notice of such slander. What do I care for the dangers? What is my life to me? But I have some experience from the past, and I am looking into the future. You are bloodthirsty monsters; your hatred blinds you. You think of yourselves, and not of the Republic. SAINT-JUST. Let us calmly consider what the Republic owes to the conspirators. Let us not ask whether Danton is talented, but whether his talents serve the Republic. Where have these attacks of the past three months come from? Danton. Who inspired Philippeaux's letters against the Committee? Danton. Who dictates Desmoulins' pamphlets? Danton. Each number of the _Vieux Cordelier_ is submitted to him; he corrects the manuscript in his own hand. If the river is poisoned, let us stop it at the source. Where is Danton's sincerity? Where is his bravery? What has he done the past year for the Republic?