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revolution_frI'll make a different post for this.
I also bring to you some sound extracts (no image) from the film.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
juliesaintjust made them. Once again, I only uploaded them. However, I was crazy enough to translate them. You’ll find the transcriptions of my translation under the cuts. :D
I have more sound extracts, but now I'll start with those I have about 9-10 thermidor.
Click on the pics (matching the scenes) to download the sound extracts.
(The night of 8 thermidor.)
SAINT-JUST – You see, Le Bas, it appears he has, himself, deliberately set the seal of all the hatreds against him. So much hatred.
LE BAS – And yet, you will defend him?
SAINT-JUST – Did you doubt I would?
LE BAS – No. (pause) Will you attack the committees?
SAINT-JUST – No, it is no longer the time to attack. I will call for wisdom. I will try to make them forget Robespierre’s blunder, to make them understand his intentions. I will show them what’s really wrong: Robespierre’s isolation, but also the isolation of the committee, where the power is exercised only by two or three members. I will demand that the votes would now only be granted with a majority of six voices. Here, look, I will propose this decree:
“The National Convention decrees that the institutions which will be soon written will present the means so that the government, without losing anything from its revolutionary impulsion, cannot aim to arbitrary, favour ambition, and oppress or usurp national representation.”
LE BAS – Yes, this is very good.
SAINT-JUST – A majority should be easily reached with such a text.
LE BAS – But yes, of course.
SAINT-JUST – And thus, everything could be fixed. (paused) But go to sleep, Le Bas; he will need us all, tomorrow.
(Other scene: Le Bas and Élisabeth. The baby cries.)
LE BAS – What are you doing there?
ÉLISABETH – It is so hot; he cannot sleep.
LE BAS – Is Robespierre sleeping now?
ÉLISABETH – Yes. When he came back from the Jacobins’ Club, he went upstairs and blew all the candles.
LE BAS – I am happy he sleeps. Come.
(9 thermidor. Morning. The house of the Duplay family.)
ROBESPIERRE – Good morning, Éléonore.
ÉLÉONORE – Good morning, Maximilien.
ROBESPIERRE – Did you sleep well?
ÉLÉONORE – Yesterday, it was so warm!
ROBESPIERRE – This day will certainly be torrid.
ÉLÉONORE – Unless a thunderstorm breaks!
ROBESPIERRE – Unless a thunderstorm breaks…
ÉLÉONORE – Do you have any work to give to me today, Maximilien?
ROBESPIERRE – No; I’ve left the manuscript of yesterday’s speech at the Jacobins’ Club.
ÉLÉONORE – Ah. I would have loved to transcript it.
ROBESPIERRE – I will ask it again to the Jacobins. If, at least…
ÉLÉONORE – If, at least?
ROBESPIERRE – If they did not lost it. Éléonore…?
ÉLÉONORE – Yes?
ROBESPIERRE – I would like to tell you…
ÉLÉONORE – Yes, Maximilien…
(Augustin and Le Bas walk in.)
LE BAS – Oh, I’m hungry. Good morning, Éléonore. Good morning, Maximilien.
AUGUSTIN – Good morning!
ROBESPIERRE – Good morning, Le Bas. Augustin.
AUGUSTIN – I hope you didn’t write all night!
ROBESPIERRE – No, I slept!
AUGUSTIN – Oh, I love Montmorency’s cherries. You want some?
ROBESPIERRE – No, thanks.
ÉLÉONORE – The coffee is ready. Come to breakfast! Daddy! Mommy! Elisabeth!
LE BAS – I can’t wait to hear Saint-Just, at the Convention. He will make short work of this snake that is the committee!
ROBESPIERRE – Yes. Between them and I, the Convention will decide.
(etc.)
(9 thermidor. The insurrection at the Hôtel de Ville.)
HANRIOT – Robespierre was just arrested! Le Bas, Couthon, Augustin, Saint-Just too.
MAN - Where are they?
OTHER MAN - In all the prisons of Paris.
HANRIOT - We must free them! Coffinhal, take one company and free them!
COFFINHAL - Which one?
HANRIOT - The one you want! I don’t care! But go, and free them!
COFFINHAL – Right!
HANRIOT - They’ll see what they’ll get! They tried to arrest me, Hanriot! Whippersnappers!
MAN – No time for speeches! We must take measures!
HANRIOT – Well, that’s what I’m doing!
(They finish to discuss on the indemnities to give to the sections to rally them. Other scene: Robespierre refuses to be freed.)
ROBESPIERRE – I do not want to be freed.
MAN – But, citizen Robespierre!
ROBESPIERRE – I was arrested by a decree. I wish to respect legality.
MAN – Don’t you hear anything? Don’t you hear the tocsin? They’re calling you! The Commune is calling for insurrection. Everywhere in Paris, people are marching towards the Commune, no matter the orders, no matter the threats of the Convention.
ROBESPIERRE – I wish to obey the accusation act which was voted against me.
MAN – But it is in your name, Robespierre, that those men rise up. It is for you, to save you, that they risk their heads. If the Convention wins, they will be guillotined. They know it. And yet they don’t hesitate. They don’t hesitate because they love you, they believe in you, because they need you.
ROBESPIERRE – All right. I follow you.
(Other scene: in the Hôtel de Ville.)
AUGUSTIN (?) - I believe we must invade the Convention from the banks and from the street Saint-Honoré. What do you think, Saint-Just?
SAINT-JUST - Yes.
(Other men discuss the sections.)
MAN - So?
MAN - The section of the Tuileries refuses to rally.
MAN - Them too?
(…)
MAN - The section of Mucius Scaevola doesn’t send the required men and, instead, demands more information.
HANRIOT - What do they want? The story of my life?!
MAN - And the committee of the faubourgs of the North sent to us fourth commissaries
HANRIOT - But I don’t care about their commissaries! What I need are armed sans-culottes and sections ready to fight!
MAN – The committee of the section of the Piques is having a permanent session.
HANRIOT – Did they send any men?
MAN – No.
HANRIOT – Shit! Did we precise to everyone that they would all be indemnified?
MAN – It was said and repeated.
(At the entrance of the Hôtel de Ville, Élisabeth accompanies her husband, Philippe Le Bas. They exchange last words.)
LE BAS – It must be done, Babet.
ÉLISABETH – I don’t want to leave you.
LE BAS – And I, I want it. Anyway, there is our son, you cannot leave him; did you forget?
ÉLISABETH – Oh, no.
LE BAS – If I ever… inspire the love to the Patrie to my son. Tell him his father died for It.
ÉLISABETH – Oh, Philippe!
(They kiss.)
LE BAS – Go, Babet. Everything will be all right.
(9 thermidor: Robespierre arrives at the Hôtel de Ville.)
ROBESPIERRE – What’s happening?
HANRIOT – For the gunners, everything goes well. The Commune possesses seventeen companies of gunners and thirty-two cannons. The Convention only has one.
ROBESPIERRE – And the people?
HANRIOT – Oh, the people…
ROBESPIERRE – The people of the sections!
HANRIOT – Well…
ROBESPIERRE – The people rises up, doesn’t it?
HANRIOT – I called all the sections. Some answered with a magnificent patriotism.
ROBESPIERRE – Some? And the others?
HANRIOT – There are some faults I cannot explain…
ROBESPIERRE – The section of the Piques?
HANRIOT – Precisely…
ROBESPIERRE – What, the section of the Piques didn’t rise up?
MAN – No, your section didn’t send any men.
ROBESPIERRE – The section of the Piques.
HANRIOT – I asked some help from the Jacobins’ Club so that they come to the Hôtel de Ville. I must admit that the Jacobins are taking long to come.
AUGUSTIN – You must write to the sections personally, Maxime.
LE BAS - When they will read your signature, they will all rally and march like only one man.
AUGUSTIN – Isn’t this your opinion, Maximilien?
ROBESPIERRE – Of course.
AUGUSTIN – Help me, Le Bas.
(pause)
SAINT-JUST – Bonsoir, Maximilien.
ROBESPIERRE – Bonsoir, Saint-Just.
HANRIOT – When I think of it, it is not too surprising. The wages of those workers were reduced. Why would they come to our help?
ROBESPIERRE – We must proclaim that the Maximum is abolished. That the wages must be free again! It must be announced immediately!
HANRIOT – I will write this decree.
ROBESPIERRE – Where is Couthon?
SAINT-JUST – He is still in prison. He refused to be freed.
ROBESPIERRE – I would like him to be here. Citizen Coffinhal, you will bring this to him. He will come. Will you sign, Saint-Just?
SAINT-JUST – Why not?
(Night of 9 to 10 thermidor.)
MAN – Ah, here’s Couthon!
ANOTHER MAN – Ah, Couthon!
ROBESPIERRE – Dear Couthon.
COUTHON – You called me, Robespierre? Here I am.
MAN – How did you find Paris?
COUTHON – Dreary. I encountered, on my way, some of our dear colleagues on horses, preceded by gendarmes with torches, screaming in the streets that we are outlaws. It frightens everybody; they return to their homes. I’ve also encountered some sections who were walking towards the Convention, not towards the Commune.
HANRIOT – But! Didn’t you see our gunners?
COUTHON – Some of them are on the place, yes. I saw much more leaving.
HANRIOT – We must write to the armies!
ROBESPIERRE – In who’s name?
HANRIOT – In the name of the Convention!
ROBESPIERRE – It is impossible.
AUGUSTIN (?) – Isn’t it everywhere we are?
LE BAS (?) – All the others are only a bunch of factions. The army will divide them and justice will do the rest!
ROBESPIERRE – My opinion is that we must write in the name of the French people.
HANRIOT (?) – I write the calling?
COUTHON (?) – Yes, write. (reciting) “Citizens soldiers, generals and officers, armies of the Republic. The National Convention has fallen in the hands of rascals...”
(The voice fades. Far from the others, Robespierre and Saint-Just speak together.)
ROBESPIERRE – Why don’t you say anything?
SAINT-JUST – You know it. “In the name of the French people…” What people? It is not here.
ROBESPIERRE – Why did you follow me?
SAINT-JUST – “You, who support the fragile patrie against the torrents of despotism and intrigue… I do not know you, but you are a great man. You are not only the deputy of a province; you are the one of humanity, and of the Republic.”
ROBESPIERRE – What is this?
SAINT-JUST – You don’t remember?
ROBESPIERRE – No.
SAINT-JUST – One day, back in 1790, a young man from Blérancourt wrote a letter to a deputy he admired through his speeches. This deputy; it was you, Robespierre. This young man; it was I.
ROBESPIERRE – So, you wrote to me?
SAINT-JUST – And I did not change.
ROBESPIERRE – I was the loneliest man of the Constituante. And now, I am alone again. Always.
SAINT-JUST – And I…
ROBESPIERRE – Everything is lost, isn’t it?
SAINT-JUST – Yes, it is lost. It could not be otherwise. Considering who we are, both of us. Considering what we think.
ROBESPIERRE – Why didn’t you help us? Give us any advice?
SAINT-JUST – We possessed seventeen companies of gunners and thirty-two cannons. The Convention only had one company. We had to, at 19:00, lead two companies in front of the main door of the Convention; at the East door, one company; at the West door, two companies. We had to, at 19:30, invade the committees and immediately arrest all the members. We had to, at 19:45, invade the Convention, proclaim the Constitution of 1793 and outlaw Tallien, Fréron, Barras and all the other rotten scoundrels. We had to send, at the School of Mars, two companies to rally the students, the officers and the troops. We had to, at 20:00, in Paris, proclaim the triumph of the Commune. And the Insurrection of the Apathetic would have been crowned the Insurrection of the Bold.
ROBESPIERRE – And you did nothing?
SAINT-JUST – If I had, would you have approved it?
ROBESPIERRE – No…
SAINT-JUST – The People of 10 August had the right to invade the Tuileries. The People of the 31 May and of the 5 September, had the right to invade the Convention. Not the armies.
ROBESPIERRE – Yes…
SAINT-JUST – Today, all that was left to us was the dictatorship of the armies. The military dictatorship. We would have been suspended in the emptiness. Robespierre, consul of the Republic. Saint-Just, consul of the Republic.
ROBESPIERRE – Which Republic?
(We hear Couthon’s voice again, quoting from the decree.)
COUTHON – "…If there are still humans in France, Virtue will triumph. Vive la République, une et indivisible!"
(We hear a fire shot. Soldiers invade the Hôtel de Ville.)
SOLDIER – Surrender, traitors! Nobody moves! The Commune is circled!
(Another fire shot.)
SOLDIER – Take hold of Hanriot! He must be alive! All resistance is pointless! If one of you move, we have the order to shoot you.
(A third fire shot.)
MAN – Maximilien!
SOLDIER – What, Robespierre? Robespierre committed suicide?! Citizen Barras, Robespierre committed suicide.
BARRAS – No, he’s only injured. That is good. We did a good work here.
SOLDIER – And Le Bas?
BARRAS – Is he dead?
MAN – Yes.
BARRAS – Take hold of the others.
SOLDIER – Shoot him!
BARRAS – Take hold of the others, I say! Bring Robespierre and Saint-Just to the Committee of Public Safety.
SOLDIER – Fine, citizen Barras.
BARRAS – They will be guillotined tomorrow.
SOLDIER – You, bring Robespierre. And you, watch Saint-Just.
(10 thermidor, early morning. Robespierre and Saint-Just are at the CSP. Saint-Just points the Declaration of rights of 1793.)
SAINT-JUST – And yet, this is our work.
(Robespierre and Saint-Just start quoting, voice-over, some articles from the Declaration of rights of 1793. You can read it here entirely.)
ROBESPIERRE – Declaration of rights of 1793. The French people, convinced that forgetfulness and contempt of the natural rights of man are the sole causes of the miseries of the world, have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration these sacred and inalienable rights, in order that all the citizens, being able to compare unceasingly the acts of the government with the aim of every social institution, may never allow themselves to be oppressed and debased by tyranny. In consequence, it proclaims in the presence of the Supreme Being the following declaration of the rights of man and citizen.
SAINT-JUST – (article 1.) The aim of society is the common welfare. Government is instituted in order to guarantee to man the enjoyment of his natural and imprescriptible rights.
(article 2.) These rights are equality, liberty, security, and property.
ROBESPIERRE – (article 3.) All men are equal by nature and before the law.
(article 6.) Liberty is the power that belongs to man to do whatever is not injurious to the rights of others: Do not do to another that which you do not wish should be done to you.
(article 7.) The right to express one's thoughts and opinions by means of the press or in any other manner, the right to assemble peaceably, the free pursuit of religion, cannot be forbidden.
SAINT-JUST – (article 9.) The law ought to protect public and personal liberty against the oppression of those who govern.
ROBESPIERRE – (article 11.) Any act done against man outside of the cases and without the forms that the law determines is arbitrary and tyrannical.
(article 13.) Every man being presumed innocent until he has been pronounced guilty.
(article 14.) No one ought to be tried and punished except after having been heard.
SAINT-JUST – (article 21.) Public relief is a sacred debt. Society owes maintenance to unfortunate citizens, either procuring work for them or in providing the means of existence for those who are unable to labor.
ROBESPIERRE – (article 22.) Education is needed by all. Society ought to favor with all its power the advancement of the public reason and to put education at the door of every citizen.
SAINT-JUST (article 23.) The social guarantee consists in the action of all to secure to each the enjoyment and the maintenance of his rights: this guarantee rests upon the national sovereignty.
(article 25.) The sovereignty resides in the people; it is inalienable.
ROBESPIERRE – (article 26.) No portion of the people can exercise the power of the entire people, but each section of the sovereign, in assembly, ought to enjoy the right to express its will with entire freedom.
SAINT-JUST – (article 27.) Let any person who may usurp the sovereignty be instantly put to death by free men
(article 33.) Resistance to oppression is the consequence of the other rights of man.
(article 35.) When the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people and for each portion of the people the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.
(drum rolls)
ROBESPIERRE – I wanted to constantly awake, within the heart of every citizen, the feeling for man’s dignity and the eternal principles which defend the rights of the peoples against mistakes.
(drum rolls)
SAINT-JUST – The Revolution must stop with the perfection of happiness.
Woo. It gives me chills just to listen to it. ;.;
I also bring to you some sound extracts (no image) from the film.
juliesaintjust made them. Once again, I only uploaded them. However, I was crazy enough to translate them. You’ll find the transcriptions of my translation under the cuts. :DI have more sound extracts, but now I'll start with those I have about 9-10 thermidor.
Click on the pics (matching the scenes) to download the sound extracts.
(The night of 8 thermidor.)
SAINT-JUST – You see, Le Bas, it appears he has, himself, deliberately set the seal of all the hatreds against him. So much hatred.
LE BAS – And yet, you will defend him?
SAINT-JUST – Did you doubt I would?
LE BAS – No. (pause) Will you attack the committees?
SAINT-JUST – No, it is no longer the time to attack. I will call for wisdom. I will try to make them forget Robespierre’s blunder, to make them understand his intentions. I will show them what’s really wrong: Robespierre’s isolation, but also the isolation of the committee, where the power is exercised only by two or three members. I will demand that the votes would now only be granted with a majority of six voices. Here, look, I will propose this decree:
“The National Convention decrees that the institutions which will be soon written will present the means so that the government, without losing anything from its revolutionary impulsion, cannot aim to arbitrary, favour ambition, and oppress or usurp national representation.”
LE BAS – Yes, this is very good.
SAINT-JUST – A majority should be easily reached with such a text.
LE BAS – But yes, of course.
SAINT-JUST – And thus, everything could be fixed. (paused) But go to sleep, Le Bas; he will need us all, tomorrow.
(Other scene: Le Bas and Élisabeth. The baby cries.)
LE BAS – What are you doing there?
ÉLISABETH – It is so hot; he cannot sleep.
LE BAS – Is Robespierre sleeping now?
ÉLISABETH – Yes. When he came back from the Jacobins’ Club, he went upstairs and blew all the candles.
LE BAS – I am happy he sleeps. Come.
(9 thermidor. Morning. The house of the Duplay family.)
ROBESPIERRE – Good morning, Éléonore.
ÉLÉONORE – Good morning, Maximilien.
ROBESPIERRE – Did you sleep well?
ÉLÉONORE – Yesterday, it was so warm!
ROBESPIERRE – This day will certainly be torrid.
ÉLÉONORE – Unless a thunderstorm breaks!
ROBESPIERRE – Unless a thunderstorm breaks…
ÉLÉONORE – Do you have any work to give to me today, Maximilien?
ROBESPIERRE – No; I’ve left the manuscript of yesterday’s speech at the Jacobins’ Club.
ÉLÉONORE – Ah. I would have loved to transcript it.
ROBESPIERRE – I will ask it again to the Jacobins. If, at least…
ÉLÉONORE – If, at least?
ROBESPIERRE – If they did not lost it. Éléonore…?
ÉLÉONORE – Yes?
ROBESPIERRE – I would like to tell you…
ÉLÉONORE – Yes, Maximilien…
(Augustin and Le Bas walk in.)
LE BAS – Oh, I’m hungry. Good morning, Éléonore. Good morning, Maximilien.
AUGUSTIN – Good morning!
ROBESPIERRE – Good morning, Le Bas. Augustin.
AUGUSTIN – I hope you didn’t write all night!
ROBESPIERRE – No, I slept!
AUGUSTIN – Oh, I love Montmorency’s cherries. You want some?
ROBESPIERRE – No, thanks.
ÉLÉONORE – The coffee is ready. Come to breakfast! Daddy! Mommy! Elisabeth!
LE BAS – I can’t wait to hear Saint-Just, at the Convention. He will make short work of this snake that is the committee!
ROBESPIERRE – Yes. Between them and I, the Convention will decide.
(etc.)
(9 thermidor. The insurrection at the Hôtel de Ville.)
HANRIOT – Robespierre was just arrested! Le Bas, Couthon, Augustin, Saint-Just too.
MAN - Where are they?
OTHER MAN - In all the prisons of Paris.
HANRIOT - We must free them! Coffinhal, take one company and free them!
COFFINHAL - Which one?
HANRIOT - The one you want! I don’t care! But go, and free them!
COFFINHAL – Right!
HANRIOT - They’ll see what they’ll get! They tried to arrest me, Hanriot! Whippersnappers!
MAN – No time for speeches! We must take measures!
HANRIOT – Well, that’s what I’m doing!
(They finish to discuss on the indemnities to give to the sections to rally them. Other scene: Robespierre refuses to be freed.)
ROBESPIERRE – I do not want to be freed.
MAN – But, citizen Robespierre!
ROBESPIERRE – I was arrested by a decree. I wish to respect legality.
MAN – Don’t you hear anything? Don’t you hear the tocsin? They’re calling you! The Commune is calling for insurrection. Everywhere in Paris, people are marching towards the Commune, no matter the orders, no matter the threats of the Convention.
ROBESPIERRE – I wish to obey the accusation act which was voted against me.
MAN – But it is in your name, Robespierre, that those men rise up. It is for you, to save you, that they risk their heads. If the Convention wins, they will be guillotined. They know it. And yet they don’t hesitate. They don’t hesitate because they love you, they believe in you, because they need you.
ROBESPIERRE – All right. I follow you.
(Other scene: in the Hôtel de Ville.)
AUGUSTIN (?) - I believe we must invade the Convention from the banks and from the street Saint-Honoré. What do you think, Saint-Just?
SAINT-JUST - Yes.
(Other men discuss the sections.)
MAN - So?
MAN - The section of the Tuileries refuses to rally.
MAN - Them too?
(…)
MAN - The section of Mucius Scaevola doesn’t send the required men and, instead, demands more information.
HANRIOT - What do they want? The story of my life?!
MAN - And the committee of the faubourgs of the North sent to us fourth commissaries
HANRIOT - But I don’t care about their commissaries! What I need are armed sans-culottes and sections ready to fight!
MAN – The committee of the section of the Piques is having a permanent session.
HANRIOT – Did they send any men?
MAN – No.
HANRIOT – Shit! Did we precise to everyone that they would all be indemnified?
MAN – It was said and repeated.
(At the entrance of the Hôtel de Ville, Élisabeth accompanies her husband, Philippe Le Bas. They exchange last words.)
LE BAS – It must be done, Babet.
ÉLISABETH – I don’t want to leave you.
LE BAS – And I, I want it. Anyway, there is our son, you cannot leave him; did you forget?
ÉLISABETH – Oh, no.
LE BAS – If I ever… inspire the love to the Patrie to my son. Tell him his father died for It.
ÉLISABETH – Oh, Philippe!
(They kiss.)
LE BAS – Go, Babet. Everything will be all right.
(9 thermidor: Robespierre arrives at the Hôtel de Ville.)
ROBESPIERRE – What’s happening?
HANRIOT – For the gunners, everything goes well. The Commune possesses seventeen companies of gunners and thirty-two cannons. The Convention only has one.
ROBESPIERRE – And the people?
HANRIOT – Oh, the people…
ROBESPIERRE – The people of the sections!
HANRIOT – Well…
ROBESPIERRE – The people rises up, doesn’t it?
HANRIOT – I called all the sections. Some answered with a magnificent patriotism.
ROBESPIERRE – Some? And the others?
HANRIOT – There are some faults I cannot explain…
ROBESPIERRE – The section of the Piques?
HANRIOT – Precisely…
ROBESPIERRE – What, the section of the Piques didn’t rise up?
MAN – No, your section didn’t send any men.
ROBESPIERRE – The section of the Piques.
HANRIOT – I asked some help from the Jacobins’ Club so that they come to the Hôtel de Ville. I must admit that the Jacobins are taking long to come.
AUGUSTIN – You must write to the sections personally, Maxime.
LE BAS - When they will read your signature, they will all rally and march like only one man.
AUGUSTIN – Isn’t this your opinion, Maximilien?
ROBESPIERRE – Of course.
AUGUSTIN – Help me, Le Bas.
(pause)
SAINT-JUST – Bonsoir, Maximilien.
ROBESPIERRE – Bonsoir, Saint-Just.
HANRIOT – When I think of it, it is not too surprising. The wages of those workers were reduced. Why would they come to our help?
ROBESPIERRE – We must proclaim that the Maximum is abolished. That the wages must be free again! It must be announced immediately!
HANRIOT – I will write this decree.
ROBESPIERRE – Where is Couthon?
SAINT-JUST – He is still in prison. He refused to be freed.
ROBESPIERRE – I would like him to be here. Citizen Coffinhal, you will bring this to him. He will come. Will you sign, Saint-Just?
SAINT-JUST – Why not?
(Night of 9 to 10 thermidor.)
MAN – Ah, here’s Couthon!
ANOTHER MAN – Ah, Couthon!
ROBESPIERRE – Dear Couthon.
COUTHON – You called me, Robespierre? Here I am.
MAN – How did you find Paris?
COUTHON – Dreary. I encountered, on my way, some of our dear colleagues on horses, preceded by gendarmes with torches, screaming in the streets that we are outlaws. It frightens everybody; they return to their homes. I’ve also encountered some sections who were walking towards the Convention, not towards the Commune.
HANRIOT – But! Didn’t you see our gunners?
COUTHON – Some of them are on the place, yes. I saw much more leaving.
HANRIOT – We must write to the armies!
ROBESPIERRE – In who’s name?
HANRIOT – In the name of the Convention!
ROBESPIERRE – It is impossible.
AUGUSTIN (?) – Isn’t it everywhere we are?
LE BAS (?) – All the others are only a bunch of factions. The army will divide them and justice will do the rest!
ROBESPIERRE – My opinion is that we must write in the name of the French people.
HANRIOT (?) – I write the calling?
COUTHON (?) – Yes, write. (reciting) “Citizens soldiers, generals and officers, armies of the Republic. The National Convention has fallen in the hands of rascals...”
(The voice fades. Far from the others, Robespierre and Saint-Just speak together.)
ROBESPIERRE – Why don’t you say anything?
SAINT-JUST – You know it. “In the name of the French people…” What people? It is not here.
ROBESPIERRE – Why did you follow me?
SAINT-JUST – “You, who support the fragile patrie against the torrents of despotism and intrigue… I do not know you, but you are a great man. You are not only the deputy of a province; you are the one of humanity, and of the Republic.”
ROBESPIERRE – What is this?
SAINT-JUST – You don’t remember?
ROBESPIERRE – No.
SAINT-JUST – One day, back in 1790, a young man from Blérancourt wrote a letter to a deputy he admired through his speeches. This deputy; it was you, Robespierre. This young man; it was I.
ROBESPIERRE – So, you wrote to me?
SAINT-JUST – And I did not change.
ROBESPIERRE – I was the loneliest man of the Constituante. And now, I am alone again. Always.
SAINT-JUST – And I…
ROBESPIERRE – Everything is lost, isn’t it?
SAINT-JUST – Yes, it is lost. It could not be otherwise. Considering who we are, both of us. Considering what we think.
ROBESPIERRE – Why didn’t you help us? Give us any advice?
SAINT-JUST – We possessed seventeen companies of gunners and thirty-two cannons. The Convention only had one company. We had to, at 19:00, lead two companies in front of the main door of the Convention; at the East door, one company; at the West door, two companies. We had to, at 19:30, invade the committees and immediately arrest all the members. We had to, at 19:45, invade the Convention, proclaim the Constitution of 1793 and outlaw Tallien, Fréron, Barras and all the other rotten scoundrels. We had to send, at the School of Mars, two companies to rally the students, the officers and the troops. We had to, at 20:00, in Paris, proclaim the triumph of the Commune. And the Insurrection of the Apathetic would have been crowned the Insurrection of the Bold.
ROBESPIERRE – And you did nothing?
SAINT-JUST – If I had, would you have approved it?
ROBESPIERRE – No…
SAINT-JUST – The People of 10 August had the right to invade the Tuileries. The People of the 31 May and of the 5 September, had the right to invade the Convention. Not the armies.
ROBESPIERRE – Yes…
SAINT-JUST – Today, all that was left to us was the dictatorship of the armies. The military dictatorship. We would have been suspended in the emptiness. Robespierre, consul of the Republic. Saint-Just, consul of the Republic.
ROBESPIERRE – Which Republic?
(We hear Couthon’s voice again, quoting from the decree.)
COUTHON – "…If there are still humans in France, Virtue will triumph. Vive la République, une et indivisible!"
(We hear a fire shot. Soldiers invade the Hôtel de Ville.)
SOLDIER – Surrender, traitors! Nobody moves! The Commune is circled!
(Another fire shot.)
SOLDIER – Take hold of Hanriot! He must be alive! All resistance is pointless! If one of you move, we have the order to shoot you.
(A third fire shot.)
MAN – Maximilien!
SOLDIER – What, Robespierre? Robespierre committed suicide?! Citizen Barras, Robespierre committed suicide.
BARRAS – No, he’s only injured. That is good. We did a good work here.
SOLDIER – And Le Bas?
BARRAS – Is he dead?
MAN – Yes.
BARRAS – Take hold of the others.
SOLDIER – Shoot him!
BARRAS – Take hold of the others, I say! Bring Robespierre and Saint-Just to the Committee of Public Safety.
SOLDIER – Fine, citizen Barras.
BARRAS – They will be guillotined tomorrow.
SOLDIER – You, bring Robespierre. And you, watch Saint-Just.
(10 thermidor, early morning. Robespierre and Saint-Just are at the CSP. Saint-Just points the Declaration of rights of 1793.)
SAINT-JUST – And yet, this is our work.
(Robespierre and Saint-Just start quoting, voice-over, some articles from the Declaration of rights of 1793. You can read it here entirely.)
ROBESPIERRE – Declaration of rights of 1793. The French people, convinced that forgetfulness and contempt of the natural rights of man are the sole causes of the miseries of the world, have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration these sacred and inalienable rights, in order that all the citizens, being able to compare unceasingly the acts of the government with the aim of every social institution, may never allow themselves to be oppressed and debased by tyranny. In consequence, it proclaims in the presence of the Supreme Being the following declaration of the rights of man and citizen.
SAINT-JUST – (article 1.) The aim of society is the common welfare. Government is instituted in order to guarantee to man the enjoyment of his natural and imprescriptible rights.
(article 2.) These rights are equality, liberty, security, and property.
ROBESPIERRE – (article 3.) All men are equal by nature and before the law.
(article 6.) Liberty is the power that belongs to man to do whatever is not injurious to the rights of others: Do not do to another that which you do not wish should be done to you.
(article 7.) The right to express one's thoughts and opinions by means of the press or in any other manner, the right to assemble peaceably, the free pursuit of religion, cannot be forbidden.
SAINT-JUST – (article 9.) The law ought to protect public and personal liberty against the oppression of those who govern.
ROBESPIERRE – (article 11.) Any act done against man outside of the cases and without the forms that the law determines is arbitrary and tyrannical.
(article 13.) Every man being presumed innocent until he has been pronounced guilty.
(article 14.) No one ought to be tried and punished except after having been heard.
SAINT-JUST – (article 21.) Public relief is a sacred debt. Society owes maintenance to unfortunate citizens, either procuring work for them or in providing the means of existence for those who are unable to labor.
ROBESPIERRE – (article 22.) Education is needed by all. Society ought to favor with all its power the advancement of the public reason and to put education at the door of every citizen.
SAINT-JUST (article 23.) The social guarantee consists in the action of all to secure to each the enjoyment and the maintenance of his rights: this guarantee rests upon the national sovereignty.
(article 25.) The sovereignty resides in the people; it is inalienable.
ROBESPIERRE – (article 26.) No portion of the people can exercise the power of the entire people, but each section of the sovereign, in assembly, ought to enjoy the right to express its will with entire freedom.
SAINT-JUST – (article 27.) Let any person who may usurp the sovereignty be instantly put to death by free men
(article 33.) Resistance to oppression is the consequence of the other rights of man.
(article 35.) When the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people and for each portion of the people the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.
(drum rolls)
ROBESPIERRE – I wanted to constantly awake, within the heart of every citizen, the feeling for man’s dignity and the eternal principles which defend the rights of the peoples against mistakes.
(drum rolls)
SAINT-JUST – The Revolution must stop with the perfection of happiness.
Woo. It gives me chills just to listen to it. ;.;
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