Robespierre comes to the Convention to-morrow; THERE we must confront and crush him.

From the Mountain shall frown against him the grim shade of Danton,--from the Plain shall rise, in their bloody cerements, the spectres of Vergniaud and Condorcet.

Frappons!" "Frappons!" cried even Barrere, startled into energy by the new daring of his colleague,--"frappons! il n'y a que les morts qui ne reviennent pas." It was observable (and the fact may be found in one of the memoirs of the time) that, during that day and night (the 7th Thermidor), a stranger to all the previous events of that stormy time was seen in various parts of the city,--in the cafes, the clubs, the haunts of the various factions; that, to the astonishment and dismay of his hearers, he talked aloud of the crimes of Robespierre, and predicted his coming fall; and, as he spoke, he stirred up the hearts of men, he loosed the bonds of their fear,--he inflamed them with unwonted rage and daring.
But what surprised them most was, that no voice replied, no hand was lifted against him, no minion, even of the tyrant, cried, "Arrest the traitor." In that impunity men read, as in a book, that the populace had deserted the man of blood.
Once only a fierce, brawny Jacobin sprang up from the table at which he sat, drinking deep, and, approaching the stranger, said, "I seize thee, in the name of the Republic." "Citizen Aristides," answered the stranger, in a whisper, "go to the lodgings of Robespierre,--he is from home; and in the left pocket of the vest which he cast off not an hour since thou wilt find a paper; when thou hast read that, return.

I will await thee; and if thou wouldst then seize me, I will go without a struggle.

Look round on those lowering brows; touch me NOW, and thou wilt be torn to pieces." The Jacobin felt as if compelled to obey against his will.