THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION. 175

At  these  words  the  latter  hastened  to  the  tribune  to
justify  himself. "  No  one,"  he  cried,  "dare  accuse  me  to  my
face!"  "  I  dare!"  exclaimed  Louvet,  one  of  the  most  deter-
mined men  of  the  Gironde. "  Yes,  Robespierre,"  he  con-
tinued, fixing  his  eye  upon  him;  "  I  accuse  you!''  Ro-
bespierre, hitherto  full  of  assurance,  became  moved. He  hi  d
once  before,  at  the  Jacobins,  measured  his  strength  with  th'g
formidable  adversary,  whom  he  knew  to  be  witty,  impetuous,
and  uncompromising. Louvet  now  spoke,  and  in  a  most  elo-
quent address  spared  neither  acts  nor  names. He  traced  the
course  of  Robespierre  to  the  Jacobins,  to  the  commune,  to
the  electoral  assembly:  "  calumniating  th^  best  patriots;
lavishing  the  basest  flatteries  on  a  few  hundred  citizens,  at
first  designated  as  the  people  of  Paris,  afterwards  as  the
people  absolutely,  and  then  as  the  sovereign;  repeating  the
eternal  enumeration  of  his  own  merits,  perfections,  and  vir-
tues; and  never  failing,  after  he  had  dwelt  on  the  strength,
grandeur,  and  sovereignty  of  the  people,  to  protest  that  he
was  the  people  too."  He  then  described  him  concealing  him-
self on  the  10th  of  August,  and  afterwards  swaying  the  con-
spirators of  the  commune. Then  he  came  to  the  mas-
sacres of  September,  and  exclaimed:  "The  revolution  of  the
10th  of  August  belongs  to  all!"  he  added,  pointing  out  a
few  Mountaineers  of  the  commune,  "  but  that  of  the  2nd  of
September,  that  belongs  to  them — and  to  none  but  them!
Have  they  not  glorified  themselves  by  it?  They  themselves,
with  brutal  contempt,  only  designated  us  as  the  patriots  of  the
10th  of  August. With  ferocious  pride  they  called  themselves
the  patriots  of  the  2nd  of  September!  Ah,  let  them  retain
this  distinction  worthy  of  the  courage  peculiar  to  them;
let  them  retain  it  as  our  justification,  and  for  their  lasting
shame !  These  pretended  friends  of  the  people  wish  to  cast
on  the  people  of  Paris  the  horrors  that  stained  the  first  week
of  September. They  have  basely  slandered  them. The
people  of  Pari 3  can  fight;  they  cannot  murder!  It  is  true,
they  were  assembled  all  the  day  long  before  the  chateau  of
the  Tuileries  on  the  glorious  10th  of  August;  it  is  false  that
they  were  seen  before  the  prisons  on  the  horrible  2nd  of  Sep-
tember. 