A Place of Greater Safety (104 page)
Read A Place of Greater Safety Online
Authors: Hilary Mantel
“It is long association. It is what I am counting on.”
“I had a letter this morning,” Hérault said, “from my colleagues on the Committee. I am accused of leaking our secret proceedings to the Austrians.” His mouth twisted. “The documentary evidence will need a little addition, before it comes to court, but that will be no trouble to Saint-Just. He tried to ruin me in Alsace. I am not a stupid man, but I found it hard to keep a step ahead. Not that there was any point.”
“It is the accident of your birth.”
“Just so. I am on my way to tender my resignation from the Committee. You might tell Georges. Oh, and wish him a happy new year.”
SAINT-JUST: Who is paying Camille to write this?
ROBESPIERRE: No, no, you don’t understand. He’s been so shaken by the direction of things—
SAINT-JUST: He’s a very good actor, I will say that for him. He seems to have taken most of you in.
ROBESPIERRE : Why must you take everything he does in bad faith?
SAINT-JUST: Will you face it, Robespierre? Either he’s in bad faith and he’s a counter-revolutionary, or he’s gone politically soft and he’s a counter-revolutionary.
ROBESPIERRE: Oh that’s very neat. You weren’t here in ’89.
SAINT-JUST: We have a new calendar now. ’89 doesn’t exist.
ROBESPIERRE: You can’t judge Camille, because you know nothing about him.
SAINT-JUST: His actions speak. Anyway, I’ve known Camille for years. He drifted along in life until he found a niche as a literary prostitute. He’s for sale to the highest bidder, and that’s why he and Danton have so much in common.
ROBESPIERRE: I don’t see how you can call it literary prostitution and so on to ask for clemency.
SAINT-JUST: No? Then can you explain why he’s the toast of every aristocrat’s dinner table for the last month? Can you explain why people like the Beauhamais woman are sending him letters of thanks and adulation? Can you explain why civil disorder has resulted?
ROBESPIERRE: It was not civil disorder. Lawful petitioners to the Convention.
SAINT-JUST: With his name in their mouths. He’s the hero of the hour.
ROBESPIERRE: Well, that is the second time for him.
SAINT-JUST: People can use such egotism for very sinister ends.
ROBESPIERRE: Like?
SAINT-JUST: Like conspiracy against the Republic.
ROBESPIERRE: Who conspires? Camille conspires with no one.
SAINT-JUST: Danton conspires. With Orléans. With Mirabeau. With Brissot. With Dumouriez, with the court, with England and with all our foreign enemies.
ROBESPIERRE: How dare you?
SAINT-JUST: Do you dare break with him? Bring him before the Tribunal and let him answer these charges.
ROBESPIERRE: Take an example. He associated with Mirabeau. I suppose this is what you mean. Mirabeau fell from grace, but when Danton first knew him he was believed to be a patriot. It was not a crime to have dealings with him, and you can’t make it so, retrospectively.
SAINT-JUST: You did not share the general blindness about Riquetti, I understand.
ROBESPIERRE: No.
SAINT-JUST: Surely therefore you warned Danton?
ROBESPIERRE: He took no notice. That’s not a crime, either.
SAINT-JUST: No? I do suspect a man who—let us say—fails to
hate
the Revolution’s enemies. If it was not a crime, it was something a good deal worse than carelessness. There was money involved. With Danton there always is. Learn that. Accept that hard cash is the height and depth of Danton’s patriotism. Where are the Crown Jewels?
hate
the Revolution’s enemies. If it was not a crime, it was something a good deal worse than carelessness. There was money involved. With Danton there always is. Learn that. Accept that hard cash is the height and depth of Danton’s patriotism. Where are the Crown Jewels?
ROBESPIERRE: Roland was responsible for them.
SAINT-JUST: Roland is dead. You’re refusing to accept what stares you in the face. There is a conspiracy. This clemency business, it is just a device to sow dissension among the patriots and pick up some cheap good will. Pierre Philippeaux is part of the plot, with his attacks on the Committee, and Danton is at its head. Wait and see. The next issue of the “Old Cordelier” will launch the real attack on Hébert, because they have to put him out of the way before they can seize power. It will also attack the Committee. My own belief is that they are planning a military coup. They have Westermann, and Dillon too.
ROBESPIERRE: Dillon’s been arrested again. Some business about plotting to rescue the Dauphin. Sounds unlikely to me.
SAINT-JUST: Camille won’t be able to get him off this time. Not that the prisons are secure.
ROBESPIERRE: Oh, the prisons! The people are saying that if the supply of meat doesn’t improve they are going to break into the prisons and roast the prisoners and eat them.
SAINT-JUST: The people are degraded, in their present state of education.
ROBESPIERRE: What do you expect? I had forgotten to worry about the meat supply.
SAINT-JUST: I think you are getting off the point.
ROBESPIERRE: Danton is a patriot. Bring me the evidence against him.
SAINT-JUST: Robespierre, you are a very obstinate man. What kind of evidence do you want?
ROBESPIERRE: Anyway, how do you know what letters Camille has?
SAINT-JUST: Oh, when I was giving you the list of those with whom Danton conspired, I forgot to include Lafayette.
ROBESPIERRE: Well, that’s just about everybody then, isn’t it?
SAINT-JUST: Yes, I think that’s just about everybody.
I
n the first week of the new year certain papers were brought to Robespierre, which proved beyond doubt Fabre’s involvement in the East India Company fraud—an affair that Fabre himself, with the cooperation of the Police Committee, had been investigating for more than two months. For half an hour Robespierre sat over the papers, shaking with humiliation and rage, fighting for control. When he heard Saint-Just’s voice, he would have liked to get out of the room; but there was only one exit.
n the first week of the new year certain papers were brought to Robespierre, which proved beyond doubt Fabre’s involvement in the East India Company fraud—an affair that Fabre himself, with the cooperation of the Police Committee, had been investigating for more than two months. For half an hour Robespierre sat over the papers, shaking with humiliation and rage, fighting for control. When he heard Saint-Just’s voice, he would have liked to get out of the room; but there was only one exit.
SAINT-JUST: What do you say now? Camille must have known something about it.
ROBESPIERRE: He was protecting a friend. Oh, he shouldn’t have done that. He should have told me.
SAINT-JUST: Fabre really took you in.
ROBESPIERRE: The conspiracies he spoke of were real.
SAINT-JUST: Oh yes. All the men he names have behaved as he predicted. What do we think of someone so close to the heart of perfidy?
ROBESPIERRE: We know what to think now.
SAINT-JUST: Fabre has been at Danton’s side throughout.
ROBESPIERRE: And so?
SAINT-JUST: Don’t show yourself more naive than you have been.
ROBESPIERRE: I will have Fabre out of the Jacobins at the next meeting. I trusted him, and he’s made me look a fool.
SAINT-JUST: They have all made you look a fool.
ROBESPIERRE: I must begin to think again. I am too well disposed towards people.
SAINT-JUST: I have a certain amount of evidence that I can put before you.
ROBESPIERRE: I know what people call evidence these days. Hearsay and denunciation and empty rhetoric.
SAINT-JUST: Are you determined to persist in your error?
ROBESPIERRE: You sound like a priest, Antoine. It’s what they say when you’re at confession—do you recall? I’ve been mistaken, I agree, in my course of action. I have been looking at what people do, listening to what they say, but I should have been looking into their hearts. I am going to find out all the conspirators now.
SAINT-JUST: Whoever they are. However great their credit in the Revolution, it must now be examined. The Revolution has got frozen up. They have frozen it up with their talk of moderation. To stand still in Revolution is to slip backwards.
ROBESPIERRE: You are mixing your metaphors.
SAINT-JUST: I am not a writer. I have more than phrases to offer.
ROBESPIERRE: Back to Camille again.
SAINT-JUST: Yes.
ROBESPIERRE: He has been misled.
SAINT-JUST: That is not my view, or the general view of the Committee. We believe him responsible for his actions, and we feel strongly that he should not escape what he deserves because of any personal feelings you might entertain for him.
ROBESPIERRE: What are you accusing me of?
SAINT-JUST: Weakness.
ROBESPIERRE: I did not get where I am through weakness.
SAINT-JUST: Remind us of it.
ROBESPIERRE: His conduct will be investigated, just as if he were anyone else. He is only an individual … . Oh my God, how I hoped to avoid this.
T
he fifth issue of the “Old Cordelier” appeared on January 5, 16 Nivôse. It attacked Hébert and his faction, compared his writings (unfavorably) to an open sewer, accused him of corruption and of complicity with the enemy. It attacked Barère and Collot, members of the Committee of Public Safety.
he fifth issue of the “Old Cordelier” appeared on January 5, 16 Nivôse. It attacked Hébert and his faction, compared his writings (unfavorably) to an open sewer, accused him of corruption and of complicity with the enemy. It attacked Barère and Collot, members of the Committee of Public Safety.
P
roceedings of the Jacobin Club (1):
roceedings of the Jacobin Club (1):
CITIZEN COLLOT [
at the tribune
]: Philippeaux and Camille Desmoulins—
at the tribune
]: Philippeaux and Camille Desmoulins—
CITIZEN HÉBERT: Justice! I demand a hearing!
PRESIDENT: Order! I put it to the meeting that the fifth issue should be read out.
JACOBIN: We have all read it.
JACOBIN: I should be ashamed to admit that I had read an aristo pamphlet.
JACOBIN: Hébert does not want it read, he does not want the truth given wider currency.
CITIZEN HÉBERT: No, no, by no means should it be read out! Camille is trying to complicate everything. He is trying to divert attention from himself. He is accusing me of stealing public funds, and it is completely false.
CITIZEN DESMOULINS: I have the proofs of it here in my hand.
CITIZEN -EBERT: Oh God! He wants to assassinate me!
P
roceedings of the Jacobin Club (2):
roceedings of the Jacobin Club (2):
PRESIDENT: We are calling on Camille Desmoulins to justify his conduct.
JACOBIN: He’s not here.
JACOBIN: To Robespierre’s relief.
PRESIDENT: I am going to call his name three times, so that he has the opportunity to come forward and justify himself before the Society.
JACOBIN: It is a pity he has not got a cockerel that he could persuade
to crow thrice. It would be illuminating to see what Danton would do.
to crow thrice. It would be illuminating to see what Danton would do.
PRESIDENT: Camille Desmoulins—
JACOBIN: He isn’t here. He knows better.
JACOBIN: It’s no use calling his name and calling his name, if he’s not here.
CITIZEN ROBESPIERRE: We will discuss instead—
CITIZEN DESMOULINS: I
am
here, actually.
am
here, actually.
CITIZEN ROBESPIERRE [
loudly
]: I said we will move instead to a discussion of the crimes of the British government.
loudly
]: I said we will move instead to a discussion of the crimes of the British government.
JACOBIN: Always a safe topic.
CITIZEN DESMOULINS [
at the tribune
]: I suppose … I suppose you are going to say that I have been mistaken. I admit I may have been—about Philippeaux’s motives, perhaps. I have made a lot of mistakes in my career. I must ask the Society for guidance because I really … I really don’t know where I am in these matters anymore.
at the tribune
]: I suppose … I suppose you are going to say that I have been mistaken. I admit I may have been—about Philippeaux’s motives, perhaps. I have made a lot of mistakes in my career. I must ask the Society for guidance because I really … I really don’t know where I am in these matters anymore.
JACOBIN: I knew he would go to pieces.
JACOBIN: Always a safe tactic.
JACOBIN: Look at Robespierre, on his feet already.
CITIZEN ROBESPIERRE: I demand to speak.
CITIZEN DESMOULINS: But Robespierre, let me—
CITIZEN ROBESPIERRE: Be quiet, Camille, I want to speak.
JACOBIN: Sit down, Camille, you will only talk yourself into more trouble.
JACOBIN: That’s right—give way, and let Robespierre extricate you. Wonderful, isn’t it?
CITIZEN ROBESPIERRE [
at
the
tribune
]: Citizens, Camille has promised us he will renounce his errors and put aside all the political heresies with which the pages of these pamphlets are filled. He has sold vast numbers of copies and the aristocrats in their falseness and treachery have been heaping praise upon him, and it has all gone to his head.
at
the
tribune
]: Citizens, Camille has promised us he will renounce his errors and put aside all the political heresies with which the pages of these pamphlets are filled. He has sold vast numbers of copies and the aristocrats in their falseness and treachery have been heaping praise upon him, and it has all gone to his head.
JACOBIN: He has dropped this manner of his, you know, the long pauses.
CITIZEN ROBESPIERRE: These writings are dangerous, because they disturb public order and fill our enemies with hope. But we have to distinguish between the author and his work. Camille—oh, Camille is just a spoiled child. His inclinations are good but he has fallen in with bad people and he has been seriously misled. We must repudiate these writing, which even Brissot would not have dared acknowledge, but we must keep Camille amongst us. I demand that—as a gesture—the offending issues of the “old Cordelier” be burned before this Society.
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