But he got no further. The stranger, bearing his burden, had already gone out of the room, closely followed by his friend. Tallien was alone in the deserted apartment, where every broken piece of furniture, every torn curtain, cried out for vengeance in the name of his beloved. He said nothing. He neither protested nor swore. But he tip-toed into the apartment and knelt down upon the floor close beside the small sofa on which she was wont to sit. Here he remained quite still for a minute or two, his eyes closed, his hands tightly clasped together. Then he stooped very low and pressed his lips against the spot where her pretty, sandalled foot was wont to rest. After that he rose, strode with a firm step out of the apartment, carefully closing the doors behind him. The strangers had vanished into the night; and citizen Tallien went quietly back to his own lodgings. CHAPTER XXXIII THE CATACLYSM §1 Forty names! Found on a list in the pocket of Robespierre's coat! Forty names! And every one of these that of a known opponent of Robespierre's schemes of dictatorship: Tallien, Barrère, Vadier, Cambon, and the rest. Men powerful to-day, prominent Members of the Convention, leaders of the people, too--but opponents! The inference was obvious, the panic general. That night--it was the 8th Thermidor, July the 26th of the old calendar--men talked of flight, of abject surrender, of appeal--save the mark!--to friendship, camaraderie, humanity! Friendship, camaraderie, humanity? An appeal to a heart of stone! They talked of everything, in fact, save of defying the tyrant; for such talk would have been folly. Defying the tyrant? Ye gods! When with a word he could sway the Convention, the Committees, the multitude, bend them to his will, bring them to heel like any tamer of beasts when he cracks his whip? So men talked and trembled. All night they talked and trembled; for they did not sleep, those forty whose names were on Robespierre's list. But Tallien, their chief, was nowhere to be found. 'Twas known that his fiancée, the beautiful Theresia Cabarrus, had been summarily arrested. Since then he had disappeared; and they--the others--were leaderless. But, even so, he was no loss. Tallien was ever pusillanimous, a temporiser--what? And now the hour for temporising is past. Robespierre then is to be dictator of France. He will be dictator of France, in spite of any opposition led by those forty whose names are on his list! He will be dictator of France! He has not said it; but his friends have shouted it from the house-tops, and have murmured under their breath that those who oppose Robespierre's dictatorship are traitors to the land. Death then must be their fate. What then, ye gods? What then? §2 And so the day broke--smiling, mark you! It was a beautiful warm July morning. It broke on what is perhaps the most stupendous cataclysm--save one--the world has ever known.