"But how? I do not understand."

"Ah! you have been in England so long, you lucky dog, and though
no doubt the main plot of our hideous tragedy has reached your
ken, you have no cognisance of the actors who play the principal
parts on this arena flooded with blood and carpeted with hate.
They come and go, these actors, my good St. Just--they come and
go. Marat is already the man of yesterday, Robespierre is the man
of to-morrow. To-day we still have Danton and Foucquier-Tinville;
we still have Pere Duchesne, and your own good cousin Antoine St.
Just, but Heron and his like are with us always."

"Spies, of course?"

"Spies," assented the other. "And what spies! Were you present
at the sitting of the Assembly to-day?"

"I was. I heard the new decree which already has passed into law.
Ah! I tell you, friend, that we do not let the grass grow under
our feet these days. Robespierre wakes up one morning with a
whim; by the afternoon that whim has become law, passed by a
servile body of men too terrified to run counter to his will,
fearful lest they be accused of moderation or of humanity--the
greatest crimes that can be committed nowadays."

"But Danton?"

"Ah! Danton? He would wish to stem the tide that his own passions
have let loose; to muzzle the raging beasts whose fangs he himself
has sharpened. I told you that Danton is still the man of to-day;