"So far as Louis XVI.

"So far as Louis XVI. was concerned, I said `no.' I did not think that I had the right to kill a man; but I felt it my duty to exterminate evil. I voted the end of the tyrant, that is to say, the end of prostitution for woman, the end of slavery for man, the end of night for the child. What say you to that torture of Tantalus as applied to a mother? Bear this well in mind sir: the French Revolution had its reasons for existence; its wrath will be absolved by the future; its result is the world made better. From its most terrible blows there comes forth a caress for the human race. I abridge, I stop, I have too much the advantage; moreover, I am dying." And ceasing to gaze at the Bishop, the conventionary concluded his thoughts in these tranquil words:-- "Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over, this fact is recognized,--that the human race has been treated harshly, but that it has progressed." The conventionary doubted not that he had successively conquered all the inmost intrenchments of the Bishop. One remained, however, and from this intrenchment, the last resource of Monseigneur Bienvenu's resistance, came forth this reply, wherein appeared nearly all the harshness of the beginning:-- "Progress should believe in God. Good cannot have an impious servitor. He who is an atheist is but a bad leader for the human race." The former representative of the people made no reply. He was seized with a fit of trembling. "I embarrassed them. The outside air penetrated to them through me. I produced on them the effect of an open door." On another occasion he said, "What would you have? Those gentlemen are princes.