It towers before him, this sinister machine, with its vast wheel and iron cogs grinding all France, their multiplied teeth pressing out each individual life, its steel blade constantly rising and falling, and, as it plays faster and faster, daily exacting a larger and larger supply of human material, while those who furnish this supply are held to be as insensible and as senseless as itself.

This Danton cannot, will not be .-- He gets out of the way, diverts himself, gambles,[3180] forgets; he supposes that the titular decapitators will probably consent to take no notice of him; in any event they do not pursue him; "they would not dare do it." "No one must lay hands on me, I am the ark." At the worst, he prefers "to be guillotined rather than guillotine."-- Having said or thought this, he is ripe for the scaffold.
III.

Robespierre.
Robespierre .-- Mediocrity of his faculties .-- The Pedant.
-- Absence of ideas .-- Study of phrases .-- Wounded self-esteem.
-- His infatuation .-- He plays victim .-- His gloomy fancies .-- His resemblance to Marat .-- Difference between him and Marat.
-- The sincere hypocrite .-- The festival in honor of the Supreme Being, and the law of Prairial 22 .-- The external and internal characters of Robespierre and the Revolution.
Even with the firm determination to remain decapitator-in-chief, Danton could never be a perfect representative of the Revolution.

It is an armed but philosophical robbery; its creed includes robbery and assassination, but only as a knife in its sheath; the showy, polished sheath is for public display, and not the sharp and bloody blade.
Danton, like Marat, lets the blade be too plainly visible.

At the mere sight of Marat, filthy and slovenly, with his livid, frog-like face, with his round, gleaming and fixed eyeballs, and his bold, maniacal stare and steady monotonous rage, common-sense rebels; no-one selects a homicidal maniac as a guide.