[74] They conceded everything, save on one point,
which they could not yield without destruction, namely, the assurance
that they should not be given up defenseless to the arbitrary judgment
of their local tyrants, to the spoliation, proscriptions and revenge
of the Jacobin rabble. In sum, at Marseilles and Bordeaux, especially
at Lyons and Toulon, the sections had revolted only on that account;
acting promptly and spontaneously, the people had thrust aside the
knife which a few ruffians aimed at their throats; they had not been,
and were not now, willing to be "Septemberised," that was their sole
concern. Provided they were not handed over to the butchers bound
hand and foot, they would open their gates. On these minimum terms
the "Mountain" could terminate the civil war before the end of July.
It had only to follow the example of Robert Lindet who, at Evreux the
home of Buzot, at Caen the home of Charlotte Corday and the central
seat of the fugitive Girondins, established permanent obedience
through the moderation he had shown and the promises he had kept.[75]
The measures that had pacified the most compromised province would
have brought back the others, and through this policy, Paris, without
striking a blow, would have secured the three largest cities in
France, the capital of the South-west, that of the South, and the
capital of the Center.
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