" Now, the president, on the highest platform, turns toward
the eighty-seven elders; he confides to the Ark containing the
Constitutional Act and the list of those who voted for it; they, on
their part, then advance and hand him their pikes, which he gathers
together into one bundle as an emblem of national unity and
indivisibility. At this, shouts arise from every point of the immense
enclosure; salvoes of artillery follow again and again; "one would say
that heaven and earth answered each other" in honor "of the greatest
epoch of humanity." -- Certainly, the delegates are beside themselves;
their nerves, strained to the utmost, vibrates too powerfully; the
millennium discloses itself before their eyes. Already, many among
them on the Place de la Bastille, had addressed the universe; others,
"seized with a prophetic spirit," promise eternity to the
Constitution. They feel themselves "reborn again, along with the
human species;" they regard themselves as beings of a new world.
History is consummated in them; the future is in their hands; they
believe themselves gods on earth. -- In this critical state, their
reason, like a pair of ill-balanced scales, yields to the slightest
touch; under the pressure of the manufacturers of enthusiasm, a sudden
reaction will carry them away.
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