"About la Vendée," replied Robespierre.
"La Vendée!" said Cimourdain.
And he added,—
"There lies the great danger. If the Revolution comes to naught, it will come to naught through la Vendée. One Vendée is more to be feared than ten Germanys. For France to live, Vendée must be killed."
These few words won Robespierre.
Robespierre, however, put this question,—
"Were you not formerly a priest?"
His priestly air did not escape Robespierre. He recognized by his exterior what was in the man.
Cimourdain replied: "Yes, citizen."
"What of that?" exclaimed Danton. "When priests are good, they are worth more than other men. In times of revolution, priests are melted up into men, as bells into money and cannons. Danjou is a priest, Daunou is a priest, Thomas Lindet is bishop of Evreux. Robespierre, you sit at the Convention side by side with Massieu, Bishop of Beauvais. The grand-vicar Vaugeois belonged to the Committee of Insurrection of the tenth of August. Chabot is a Capuchin. It was Dom Gerle who invented the oath of the tennis court; it was the Abbé Audran who caused the National Assembly to be declared superior to the king; it was the Abbé Goutte who asked the Legislature to have the dais taken away from Louis XVI.'s arm-chair; it was the Abbé Grégoire who provoked the abolition of royalty."
"Supported by the player, Collot-d'Herbois," sneered Marat. "The two together did the work; the priest overthrew the throne, the comedian threw down the king."
"Let us return to la Vendée," said Robespierre.
"Well," asked Cimourdain, "what is the matter there? What is this Vendée doing?"
Robespierre replied,—
"She has a chief. She is going to be tremendous."
Who is this chief, Citizen Robespierre?"
"He is a former Marquis de Lantenac, who calls himself Prince of Brittany."
Cimourdain started.
"I know him," he said. "I have been a priest at his house."
He thought for a moment, and then added,—
