"This is M. Danton, a brother-lawyer, President of the Cordeliers,
of whom you will have heard."
Of course Andre-Louis had heard of him. Who had not, by then?
Looking at him now with interest, Andre-Louis wondered how it came
that all, or nearly all the leading innovators, were pock-marked.
Mirabeau, the journalist Desmoulins, the philanthropist Marat,
Robespierre the little lawyer from Arras, this formidable fellow
Danton, and several others he could call to mind all bore upon
them the scars of smallpox. Almost he began to wonder was there
any connection between the two. Did an attack of smallpox produce
certain moral results which found expression in this way?
He dismissed the idle speculation, or rather it was shattered by
the startling thunder of Danton's voice.
"This -- Chapelier has told me of you. He says that you are a
patriotic --."
More than by the tone was Andre-Louis startled by the obscenities
with which the Colossus did not hesitate to interlard his first
speech to a total stranger. He laughed outright.
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