"Do not congratulate me too much, sir.
I did vote for the death of the tyrant."
It was the tone of austerity answering the tone of severity.
"What do you mean to say?" resumed the Bishop.
"I mean to say that man has a tyrant,--ignorance.
I voted for the death of that tyrant.
That tyrant engendered royalty, which is authority falsely understood, while science is authority rightly understood. Man should be governed only by science."
"And conscience," added the Bishop.
"It is the same thing.
Conscience is the quantity of innate science which we have within us."
Monseigneur Bienvenu listened in some astonishment to this language, which was very new to him.
The member of the Convention resumed:--
"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.
In voting for the Republic, I voted for that.
I voted for fraternity, concord, the dawn. I have aided in the overthrow of prejudices and errors.
The crumbling away of prejudices and errors causes light.
We have caused the fall of the old world, and the old world, that vase of miseries, has become, through its upsetting upon the human race, an urn of joy."
"Mixed joy," said the Bishop.