rid of one fault. You talk too much. You have been in Paris twenty-four
hours, and already you have repeatedly criticized the affair of
September. I know this; I have been informed of it" "But that was a
massacre; how can one help calling it horrible?" "I did it," replies
Danton, "The Parisians are all so many j--f--. A river of blood had
to flow between them and the émigrés. You are too young to understand
these matters. Return to the army; it is the only place nowadays for a
young man like you and of your rank. You have a future before you; but
mind this--keep your mouth shut!"]
[Footnote 3151: Hua, 167.. Narrative by his guest, the physician Lambry,
an intimate friend of Danton ultra-fanatical and member of a committee
in which the question came up whether the members of the "Right" should
likewise be put out of the way. "Danton had energetically repelled this
sanguinary proposal. 'Everybody knows,' he said, 'that I do not shrink
from a criminal act when necessary; but I disdain to commit a useless
one."']
[Footnote 3152: Mortimer-Ternaux, Iv. 437. Danton exclaims, in relation
to the hot-headed commissioners sent by him into the department: "Eh!
damn it, do you suppose that we would send you young ladies?"]
[Footnote 3153: Philippe de Ségur, "Mémoires,"I.12. Danton, in a
conversation with his father, a few weeks after the 2nd of September.]
[Footnote 3154: See above, narrative of the king, louis Philippe.]
[Footnote 3155: Buchez et Roux, xvii. 347. The words of Danton in the
National Assembly, Sept. 2nd a little before two o'clock, just as the
tocsin and cannon gave the signal of alarm agreed upon. Already on
the 31st of August, Tailien, his faithful ally, had told the National
Assembly: "We have arrested the priests who make so much trouble. They
are in confinement in a certain domicile, and in a few days the soil of
liberty will be purged of their presence."]
[Footnote 3156: Meillan, "Mémoires," 325 (Ed. Barrière et Berville).
Speech by Fabre d'Eglantine at the Jacobin Club, sent around among the
affiliated clubs, May 1, 1793.]
[Footnote 3157: Robinet, "Procès des Dantonistes," 39, 45 (words of
Danton in the committee on general defense).--Madame Roland, "Mémoires,"
II. 30. On the 2nd of September Grandpré ordered to report to the
Minister of the Interior on the state of the prisons, waits for Danton
as he leaves the council and tells him his fears. "Danton, irritated by
the description, exclaims in his bellowing way, suiting his word to the
action. 'I don't give a damn about the prisoners! Let them take care of
themselves! And he proceeded on in an angry mood. This took place in the
second ante-room, in the presence of twenty persons."--Arnault, II. 101.
About the time of the September massacres "Danton, in the presence
of one of my friends, replied to someone that urged him to use his
authority in stopping the spilling of blood: 'Isn't it time for the
people to take their revenge?' "]
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