speech,
  The same that had been recently pronounced,
  When Robespierre, not ignorant for what mark
  Some words of indirect reproof had been 105
  Intended, rose in hardihood, and dared
  The man who had an ill surmise of him
  To bring his charge in openness; whereat,
  When a dead pause ensued, and no one stirred,
  In silence of all present, from his seat 110
  Louvet walked single through the avenue,
  And took his station in the Tribune, saying,
  “I, Robespierre, accuse thee!” [I] Well is known
  The inglorious issue of that charge, and how
  He, who had launched the startling thunderbolt, 115
  The one bold man, whose voice the attack had sounded,
  Was left without a follower to discharge
  His perilous duty, and retire lamenting
  That Heaven’s best aid is wasted upon men
  Who to themselves are false. [K]
                  But these are things 120
  Of which I speak, only as they were storm
  Or sunshine to my individual mind,
  No further.  Let me then relate that now—­
  In some sort seeing with my proper eyes
  That Liberty, and Life, and Death would soon 125
  To the remotest corners of the land
  Lie in the arbitrement of those who ruled
  The capital City; what was struggled for,
  And by what combatants victory must be won;
  The indecision on their part whose aim 130
  Seemed best, and the straightforward path of those
  Who in attack or in defence were strong
  Through their impiety—­my inmost soul
  Was agitated; yea, I could almost
  Have prayed that throughout earth upon all men, 135
  By patient exercise of reason made
  Worthy of liberty, all spirits filled
  With zeal expanding in Truth’s holy light,
  The gift of tongues might fall, and power arrive
  From the four quarters of the winds to do 140
  For France, what without help she could not do,
  A work of honour; think not that to this
  I added, work of safety:  from all doubt
  Or trepidation for the end of things
  Far was I, far as angels are from guilt. 145

    Yet did I grieve, nor only grieved, but thought
  Of opposition and of remedies: 
  An insignificant stranger and obscure,
  And one, moreover, little graced with power
  Of eloquence even in my native speech, 150
  And all unfit for tumult or intrigue,
  Yet would I at this time with willing heart
  Have undertaken for a cause so great
  Service however dangerous.  I revolved,
  How much the destiny of Man had still 155
  Hung upon single persons; that there was,
  Transcendent to all local patrimony,