Chapter 25, Chapter 26 & Chapter 27 Summary

In Chapter 25, Evariste is deep in thought on a bench in the Garden of the Tuileries while Brotteaux and his accomplices are carted off to their execution. Waiting for Elodie, he thinks a heavy price has been paid for victory, and despite the victories of the past year, he is gloomy, thinking "we used to say: To conquer or to die. We were mistaken, it was To conquer and to die, we should have said" (p. 227). Enthusiasm has been replaced with weariness and disgust, and people no longer want to hear of the Revolutionary Tribunal or see the guillotine; even those in the Tribunal plot Robespierre's downfall. When Elodie arrives, Evariste explains he has asked her to meet him in order to say goodbye forever. He can no longer accept her love because he has devoted his life to...