After the eighty-seven have passed the
cup around, the artillery roars. The procession them moves on, and
the delegates again are assigned the place of honor. The elders,
holding an olive-branch in one hand, and a pike in the other, with a
streamer on the end of it bearing the name of their department, "bound
to each other by a small three-color ribbon," surround the Convention
as if to convey the idea that the nation maintains and conducts its
legal representative. Behind them march the rest of the eight
thousand delegates, likewise holding olive-branches and forming a
second distinct body, the largest of all, and on which all eyes are
centered. For, in their wake, "their is no longer any distinction
between persons and functionaries," all being confounded together,
marching pell-mell, executive council, city officials, judges
scattered about haphazard and, by virtue of equality, lost in the
crowd. At each station, thanks to their insignia, the delegates form
the most conspicuous element. On reaching the last one, that of the
Champ de Mars, they alone with the Convention, ascend the steps
leading to the alter of the country; on the highest platform stands
the eldest of all alongside the president of the Convention, also
standing; thus graded above each other, the seven thousand, who
envelope the seven hundred and fifty, form "the veritable Sacred
Mountain.
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