His words, which had been listened to in silence, were at first greeted with that applause to which he had long been accustomed. But then Cambon, a brave as well as scrupulous man, infuriated by the unjust accusations made against him, strode to the rostrum to declare, ‘Before I am dishonoured, I will speak to the French nation. It is time to tell the whole truth. One man alone is paralysing the will of the National Convention. And that man is Robespierre.’
Obviously taken aback by this furious counter-attack and the enthusiasm with which it was welcomed, Robespierre became apologetic rather than assertive. Encouraged by his faltering, other deputies, including Billaud-Varenne, rose to defend themselves vigorously and to assail Robespierre as heatedly as he had assailed them. ‘The mask must be torn away,’ Billaud-Varenne shouted. ‘I would rather my corpse served as the throne of an ambitious man than that by my silence I should become the accomplice of his crimes.’ Other deputies, fearing that their names were on the list of men whom Robespierre was condemning by implication, demanded that the names be announced. ‘The list! The list!’ numerous voices shouted. But Robespierre refused to divulge it. The time was not ripe, he said, thus alarming those who felt they might perhaps be on it as much as those who were sure they were and bringing them all in closer opposition to him. When the session was brought to a noisy conclusion it was clear that Robespierre’s fall was imminent.
He himself still did not believe it so. That evening he went to the Jacobin Club of whose support he felt confident. Billaud-Varenne and Collot d’Herbois were already there, demanding to be allowed to speak first. But most members refused to listen to them and to cries of ‘À la guillotine!’ they were both expelled from the hall. As they passed through the door the red-haired and red-faced René Dumas, now President of the Revolutionary Tribunal, shouted at their retreating backs that he would be waiting for them to appear before him next morning. To loud cheers Robespierre then rose to deliver the speech he had made in the Convention that afternoon, ending with the promise that, if they supported him, the ‘new traitors’ would share the fate of the old, but if they deserted him he would take hemlock and die with calm resignation. ‘If you drink it I will drink it, too,’ promised David, close to hysteria. ‘Yes, yes,’ others protested, they would all drink it; they swore to do so.
‘What’s new at the Jacobin Club, then?’ asked Saint-Just tauntingly when Billaud-Varenne and Collot d’Herbois, his clothes torn and face scratched, returned to the offices of the Committee of Public Safety.
‘How dare you ask that?’ Collot yelled at him. ‘You should know bloody well. You and Robespierre and Couthon are planning to have us guillotined. Why, you’re drawing up an accusation against us now.’
‘You may be right,’ said Saint-Just who had, in fact, been doing so. He turned to Carnot who was also in the room and added, ‘I shan’t forget you, either. I’ve dealt with you in a masterly way.’
Collot then threw himself upon Saint-Just, grabbing him by the throat. Carnot pushed the two men apart, and Saint-Just, his normally icy composure evidently ruffled by Collot’s fury, agreed not to deliver his report to the Convention until he had read it to the other members of the Committee. He was then left alone to complete it in the heat of the sultry night.
The atmosphere next day in the Convention was quite as emotional as it had been at the Jacobin Club and in the offices of the Committee of Public Safety the night before. Saint-Just, having broken his promise to return to the Committee first, rose to name the people that Robespierre had attacked by implication in his long speech the previous afternoon. But Tallien rushed up to the rostrum to interrupt him, to accuse both him and Robespierre of aggravating the ills of the nation. Tallien was followed by Billaud-Varenne, still enraged by Robespierre’s remarks and by his expulsion from the Jacobin Club ‘at the instigation of its most disreputable members’ who planned ‘to slaughter the Convention’ and who ‘spat out the vilest calumnies against men who had never once deviated from the true path of the Revolution’.
Robespierre attempted to reply, but his words were lost in the clangour of the President’s bell. As he rushed to the rostrum, there were howls of protest and shouts of ‘Down with the tyrant! À la guillotine!’ Tallien, waving a dagger above his head, threatened to kill him if the Convention did not order his arrest. Refused permission to speak, Robespierre was compelled to listen while Vadier accused him of having hidden himself on the great journée of 10 August and of having deserted the Committee of Public Safety, by whose efforts the country was saved, at a time when the French armies were in danger of defeat.
As though driven frantic by these words, Robespierre rushed from side to side beneath the rostrum, and up and down the steps, shouting, ‘Death! Death!’ Pointing at Thuriot who was now in the President’s chair repeatedly ringing his bell, he yelled ‘For the last time will you give me permission to speak, President of murderers!’ Then, in attempting to make further accusations, his voice failed him. ‘Ah!’ someone called out with satisfaction, ‘Danton’s blood chokes you.’ ‘President,’ another voice shouted. ‘Is this man to be master of the Convention a moment longer?’ Robespierre was about to sit down in exhaustion when he was violently pushed away, ‘Monster! How dare you! That was Vergniaud’s seat.’ He found another place and slumped down with a gesture of helpless defeat.