There was bold Lecointre, the declared enemy; there, creeping Barrere, who would reconcile all extremes, the hero of the cowards; Barras, calm and collected; Collet d'Herbois, breathing wrath and vengeance, and seeing not that the crimes of Robespierre alone sheltered his own.
The council was agitated and irresolute.

The awe which the uniform success and the prodigious energy of Robespierre excited still held the greater part under its control.

Tallien, whom the tyrant most feared, and who alone could give head and substance and direction to so many contradictory passions, was too sullied by the memory of his own cruelties not to feel embarrassed by his position as the champion of mercy.

"It is true," he said, after an animating harangue from Lecointre, "that the Usurper menaces us all.

But he is still so beloved by his mobs,--still so supported by his Jacobins: better delay open hostilities till the hour is more ripe.