The Goddess of Reason 43
THE JUDGE
Silence, Citoyennes in the gallery!
You disturb judgment!
CÉLESTE (_leaning from the gallery_)
We would know up here
Why you did free that man?
THE JUDGE (_soothingly_)
Ah, Citoyenne!
He’s not free—he’s but acquitted!
CÉLESTE
Ah, well!
That’s different!
(_To the women about her._) He’s but acquitted!
THE WOMEN (_They nod their heads_)
Ah!
_Enter_ LALAIN _with_ NANON _and_ ANGÉLIQUE.
CÉLESTE
Hé! Angélique! Nanon!
[NANON _and_ ANGÉLIQUE _make their way through
the press to the gallery stairs_.
THE CROWD
Rémond Lalain.
A JUDGE
Thy place is here, Lalain!
LALAIN
Make way, my friends.
The Levée’s thronged to-day.
THE CROWD
Ha, ha, ‘tis so!
Levée of the Citoyen Carrier!
_Vive la République! Vive Rémond Lalain!_
[LALAIN _sits beside the judges_.
A JUDGE (_to a gaoler_)
The next.
THE GAOLER
Dog of a priest!
[THE ABBÉ _approaches the bar_.
THE ABBÉ
On yesterday,
Messieurs the Judges, you acquitted me.
A JUDGE
It is to-day.
THE ABBÉ
Citoyen Lambertye—
LAMBERTYE (_hastily_)
I give thee o’er—I give thee o’er—
THE ABBÉ
Parbleu!
Samaritan! Would I had played Levite!
And left thee in the ditch with every wound
Till Satan came to hale his minion forth!—
Well, with this life I’ve done!
FIRST JUDGE
Thou art a priest
THE ABBÉ
Granted.
SECOND JUDGE
Death!
A TRICOTEUSE (_from the gallery_)
Hé! Citoyen, below there!
I’ve dropped my knitting. Throw it here to me!
THIRD JUDGE
Thou hast aided emigrés.
THE ABBÉ
Granted.
SECOND JUDGE
Death!
FIRST JUDGE
And written unto exiles.
THE ABBÉ
Granted.
SECOND JUDGE
Death!
THIRD JUDGE
Thou hast been heard to scorn and to lament
That which the Revolution hath achieved!
THE ABBÉ
Scorn and lament! Why, no, I’ve wept with joy
To see the things the Revolution hath achieved!
As—
FIRST JUDGE
As what?
THE ABBÉ
Why, thou death’s-head, many things!
It did achieve, for one, my brother’s death!
THIRD JUDGE
Dost thou mourn for him?
THE ABBÉ
Ay!
SECOND JUDGE
Death!
THE ABBÉ
Achieve! I like the word. Achieve, achieve!
Ruin and downfall, death and waste of fame!
Achievement of the Revolution! Ha,
I’ll tell thee, farceur, what it hath achieved:
It hath achieved the death of the Gironde,
Death of Marat, and death of D’Orléans,
Death of great part of its abhorrèd brood!
It hath achieved the Company of Marat;
It hath achieved Jacques Carrier in Nantes;
It shall achieve more death and infamy!
Death! The word you are so fond of. Death!
And Infamy, the thing you can’t bestow!
It shall achieve the death of Carrier,
The death of Lambertye and of Lalain,
The death of Danton and of Robespierre!—
Nature will give a grave obscene and dark,
And Time will see that docks and darnels grow!
[_Uproar._
THE FIRST JUDGE
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