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Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 3"

There, they are taken possession of, and
conducted to the mayoralty, where they receive lodging tickets, while
a picket of gendarmerie escorts them to their allotted domiciles.[25]
-- Behold them in pens like sheep, each in his numbered stall; there
is no fear of the dissidents trying to escape and form a band apart:
one of them, who comes to the Convention and asks for a separate hall
for himself and his adherents, is snubbed in the most outrageous
manner; they denounce him as an intriguer, and accuse him of a desire
to defend the traitor Castries; they take his name and credentials,
and threaten him with an investigation.[26] The unfortunate speaker
hears the Abbaye alluded to, and evidently thinks himself fortunate to
escape sleeping there that night. -- After this, it is certain that
he will not again demand the privilege of speaking, and that his
colleagues will remain quiet; and all this is the more likely
* because the revolutionary tribunal holds permanent sessions under
their eyes,
* because the guillotine is set up and in operation on the "Place de
la R?volution;"
* because a recent act of the Commune enjoins on the police "the most
active surveillance" and "constant patrols" by the armed force;
* because, from the first to the fourth of August, the barriers are
closed;
* because, on the 2nd of August, a raid into three of the theaters
puts five hundred young men in the lock-up,[27]
so the discontented soon discover, if there are any, that this is not
the time or the place to protest.


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