"I grant you that would be the case here, Sir; but, believe me. it does not apply in France. There the people have no means of removing power from the hands of those who have usurped it, except by a counter-revolution; and all the men capable of organizing a coup d'etat are now either dead, in exile or in prison."
"You are wrong in that!" Mr. Pitt spoke cheerfully, and took a quick swig at his port "The events of Thermidor were in themselves a counter-revolution."
Roger shook his head. "If you think that, you have been misinformed. They were no moves against the political principles by which France has been misgoverned since the Jacobins got the upper hand. It was a purely domestic upheaval in which a group of unscrupulous demagogues succeeded in seizing the leadership from others of their own party. Those who are gone and those who remain have all subscribed to the extremist policy of the Mountain, and with others of the same kidney have been jockeying among themselves for power for many months past. It began with an intricate three-cornered fight. The Hebertists were the first to succumb. They were the brains behind the sans-culottes, and with their fall the mob became a headless monster. One might have hoped then for better things, but the Terror continued unabated. In April the Dantonists followed them to the scaffold. That may have appeared a setback for more moderate councils, but I assure you that had they triumphed they would have continued to slaughter everyone who attempted to oppose their plundering the nation like a gang of robbers and turning Paris into one vast brothel. There remained the triumvirate of Robespierre, Couthon and St Just None of these so-called 'incorruptibles' was as venal as Danton or as vile as Hubert, yet they used the guillotine more ruthlessly than either. They had to, in order to keep themselves in power. Now they too are gone, but only to be replaced by others all of whom are steeped in innocent blood up to the elbows."
For a moment Mr. Pitt continued to gaze placidly across the close-cropped sunlit lawn, then he said with an air of reasonableness: "Mr. Brook, the extraordinary position you achieved for yourself enabled you to follow the inner workings of the Revolution so closely that I count you the first authority in England upon it. Yet I believe you to be wrong in your assessment of the future. The necessity you were under to escape from France via Switzerland, followed by your long journey home via the Rhine and the Low Countries, has placed you out of touch with events. You can know little of what has occurred m Paris since you left it towards the end of July, whereas I have had many more recent advices; among them that a strong reaction to the Terror has definitely set in, and that no less than ninety-five of Robespierre's associates have followed him to the scaffold."
"That is excellent news." Roger smiled; but added the caution: "Yet its true import depends on who they were. Should they have been only the Incorruptibles’ personal hangers-on it means little. If, on the other hand, Billaud-Varennes, Collot d'Herbois, Fouché, Barere, Vadier, Carrier, Fouquier-Tinville, Freron and Tallien were among them, then there are real grounds for your optimism."
"Fouquier-Tinville has been impeached; but in this connection I recall no other of the names you mention."
"In that case, Sir, it would be wrong of me to encourage your hopes. When I left, Billaud and Collot had, by opposing Robespierre, retained their seats on the all-powerful Committee of Public Safety. The one superintended the massacres at the prisons in September '92, during which the Princess de Lamballe with scores of other ladies, priests, and nobles were brutally butchered; the other, jointly with Fouché, organized the mitraillades at Lyons, whereby many hundreds of Liberals were destroyed en-masse with grape-shot Tallien, while proconsul at Bordeaux, decimated the upper and middle classes of that city; and last winter, after Admiral Lord Hood was forced to abandon Toulon, Freron turned that port into a blood bath. Carrier, as you must know, has become forever infamous for his mass drownings of men, women and children in the Loire. It is said that during four months of his tyranny at Nantes he has slain not less than fifteen thousand people. While such monsters still have the direction of affairs, what possibility can there be of a return to the humanities?"
A frown creased the Prime Minister's lofty brow, and he said a shade petulantly: "I find your assessment of the situation most disappointing, Mr. Brook; particularly as you played no small part yourself in bringing about the downfall of Robespierre. For that all praise is due to you; but you would have risked your head to better purpose had you chosen as your co-conspirators men whose qualities would have made them less likely to follow the policies of their predecessors after the blow had been struck."
Roger would have been angry had he not known how little his great master understood the involved development of the Revolution. Having with one of his riding gloves, swatted a wasp that was displaying interest in his port, he replied with commendable patience: "When I last waited upon you. Sir, at Walmer Castle, it was agreed that I should do what I could to weaken the regime in France by setting her rulers against one another. But this was no case of pitting a few game terriers against a pack of giant rats. I had to deal with a single hydra-headed monster, and all I could do was to induce its heads to attack each other."
"Very well, then. Tell me now more of the men you picked on to serve your ends. What sort of a fellow is this Barras, who has suddenly become so prominent?"
"He is a ci-devant Count who has seen military service in India. Last winter as a general at the siege of Toulon he showed considerable ability, and it was there I met him. I chose him because he is ambitious, fearless and a good leader; but he is the most dissolute and unscrupulous man one could come upon in a long day's march."
"And Dubois-Crance?'
"Although a civilian, he too has played a prominent part in directing the revolutionary armies, and instilling some degree of discipline into them. It is to that he probably owes his life, as he is one of the few moderates with a first-class brain who has survived the Terror. His value lay in his ability to rouse the cowardly deputies of the Plain from their lethargy, so that they would support the attack that was to be made on Robespierre in the Convention."
"He sounds a promising man; but need you have approached an avowed terrorist, like Tallien?"
"It was essential to include one of the original mob-leaders. Only so could the base of the movement be made broad enough to insure against the sans-culottes rising in defence of the Robespierrists. I chose Tallien for the role because the beautiful aristocrat whom he is said to have married lay in prison under sentence of death, and in joining us lay his one hope of saving her."
"What of the others who were later drawn in by the three of your own choice?"
"Unfortunately those who proved most valuable as allies in the plot were all men I would gladly have seen dead. Among them were the despicable Abbé Sieyes, the terrorist Freron, and my own most dangerous enemy Joseph Fouché, who adds to his other crimes the role of the Revolution's high-priest of atheism. The only bond they had in common was the knowledge that if they did not swiftly strike at Robespierre he would have all their heads in the basket before they were a month older. But mutual fear spurred them to sink their differences and pull him down."
"And you think this godless, blood-stained crew will be able to maintain themselves in power?"