"It is my duty to enlighten myself, and it is my business to keep myself informed."
"Marat!"
"I love knowledge."
"Marat!"
"Robespierre, I know what you said to Saint-Just, as I know what Danton said to Lacroix, as I know what happens on the Quai des Théatins, in the mansion of Labriffe, a den where the nymphs of emigration repair; as I know what takes place in the house of the Thilles, near Gonesse, belonging to Valmerange, former administrator of the posts, where Maury and Cazalès used to go, where Sieyès and Vergniaud have gone since, and where now a certain one goes once a week."
As he said "A certain one," Marat looked at Danton.
Danton exclaimed,—
"If I had two atoms of power, this would be terrible."
Marat continued,—
"I know what you said, Robespierre, as I know what happened in the tower of the Temple, when they fattened Louis XVI. there so well, that in the month of September alone, the wolf, the she-wolf, and the cubs ate eighty-six baskets of peaches. At the same time, the people were starving. I know this as I know that Roland was hidden in a house looking out on a back court in Rue de la Harpe; as I know that six hundred pikes of the fourteenth of July were made by Faure, the Duke of Orléans's locksmith; as I know what was done at the house of Saint-Hilaire, Sillery's mistress; on days when there was to be a ball, old Sillery himself rubbed chalk on the floors of the yellow drawing-room in Rue Neuve-des-Mathurin; Buzot and Kersaint dined there. Saladin dined there the twenty-seventh, and with whom, Robespierre? With your friend, Lasource."
"Words, words," murmured Robespierre. "Lasource is not my friend."
And he added thoughtfully,—
"Meanwhile, there are eighteen manufactories of false assignats in London."
Marat continued in a calm voice, but with a slight trembling, which was alarming,—
"You are the Faction des Importants. Yes, I know it all, in spite of what Saint-Just calls "State silence."
