At these words Camille Desmoulins, Brissot’s enemy, concealed in the chamber, bowing towards his neighbour, said aloud with a sneering laugh, “What a cunning rogue!  Cicero and Demosthenes never uttered more eloquent insinuations.”  Cries of angry feeling burst from the ranks of Brissot’s friends, who clamoured for Camille Desmoulins’ expulsion.  A censor of the chamber declared that the remarks of the pamphleteer were disgraceful, and order was restored.  Brissot proceeded.  “Denunciation is the weapon of the people:  I do not complain of this.  Do you know who are its bitterest enemies?  Those who prostitute denunciation.  Yes; but where are the proofs?  Treat with the deepest contempt him who denounces, but does not prove.  How long have a protector or a protectorate been talked of?  Do you know why?  Is it to accustom the ear to the name of tribuneship and tribune.  They do not see that a tribuneship can never exist.  Who would dare to dethrone the constitutional king?  Who would dare to place the crown on his head?  Who can imagine that the race of Brutus is extinct?  And if there were no Brutus, where is the man who has ten times the ability of Cromwell?  Do you believe that Cromwell himself would have succeeded in a revolution like ours?  There were for him two easy roads to usurpation, which are to-day closed—­ignorance and fanaticism.  You think you see a Cromwell in a La Fayette.  You neither know La Fayette nor your times.  Cromwell had character—­La Fayette has none.  A man does not become protector without boldness and decision; and when he has both, this society comprises a crowd of friends of liberty, who would rather perish than support him.  I first make the oath, that either equality shall reign, or I will die contending against protectors and tribunes.  Tribunes! they are the worst enemies of the people.  They flatter to enchain it.  They spread suspicions of virtue, which will not debase itself.  Remember who were Aristides and Phocion,—­they did not always sit in the tribune.”

Brissot, as he darted this sarcasm, looked towards Robespierre, for whom he meant it.  Robespierre turned pale, and raised his head suddenly.  “They did not always sit in the tribune,” continued Brissot; “they were at their posts in the camp, or at the tribunals,” (a sneering laugh came from the Girondist benches, accusing Robespierre of abandoning his post at the moment of danger).  “They did not disdain any charge, however humble it might be, when it was assigned them by the people:  they spoke seldom; they did not flatter demagogues; they never denounced without proofs!  The calumniators did not spare Phocion.  He was the victim of an adulator of the people!  Ah! this reminds me of the horrible calumny uttered against Condorcet!  Who are you who dare to slander this great man?  What have you done?  What are your labours, your writings?  Can you quote, as he can, so many assaults during three years by himself with Voltaire and D’Alembert