Robespierre and Marat were in luck. The Paine-Condorcet Constitution omitted all mention of a Deity. Here was the immemorial and infallible recipe for discord, of which Robespierre made the most He took the "Supreme Being" under his protection; he also took morality under his protection, insisting that the Paine-Condorcet Constitution gave liberty even to illicit traffic. While these discussions were going on Marat gained his triumphant acquittal from the charges made against him by the Girondins. This damaging blow further demoralized the majority which was eager for the Constitution. By violence, by appeals against atheism, by all crafty tactics, the Mountaineers secured recommitment of the Constitution. To the Committee were added Hérault de Séchelles, Ramel, Mathieu, Couthon, Saint-Just,--all from the Committee of Public Safety. The Constitution as committed was the most republican document of the kind ever drafted, as remade it was a revolutionary instrument; but its preamble read: "In the presence and under the guidance (_auspices_) of the Supreme Being, the French People declare," etc. God was in the Constitution; but when it was reported (June 10th) the Mountaineers had their opponents _en route_ for the scaffold. The arraignment of the twenty-two, declared by the Convention "calumnious" six weeks before, was approved on June 2d. It was therefore easy to pass such a constitution as the victors desired. Some had suggested, during the theological debate, that "many crimes had been sanctioned by this King of kings,"--no doubt with emphasis on the discredited royal name. Robespierre identified his "Supreme Being" with nature, of whose ferocities the poor Girondins soon had tragical evidence.* * "Les rois, les aristocrates, les tyrants qu'ils soient, sont des esclaves révoltas contre le souverain de la terre, qui est le genre humain, et contre le législateur de l'univers, qui est la nature."--Robespierre's final article of "Rights," adopted by the Jacobins, April 21,1793. Should not slaves revolt? The Constitution was adopted by the Convention on June 25th; it was ratified by the Communes August 10th. When it was proposed to organize a government under it, and dissolve the Convention, Robespierre remarked: _That sounds like a suggestion of Pitt!_ Thereupon the Constitution was suspended until universal peace, and the Revolution superseded the Republic as end and aim of France.*