Its decrees, received with blind
obedience, startle France and upset all Europe. At a distance, its
majesty is imposing, more august than that of the Republican senate in
Rome. Near by, the effect is quite otherwise; these undisputed
sovereigns are serfs who live in trances, and justly so, for, nowhere,
even in prison, is there more constraint and less security than on
their benches. After the 2nd of June, 1793, their inviolable
precincts, the grand official reservoir from which legal authority
flows, becomes a sort of tank, into which the revolutionary net
plunges and successfully brings out its choicest fish, singly or by
the dozen, and sometimes in vast numbers; at first, the sixty-seven
Girondist deputies, who are executed or proscribed; then, the seventy-
three members of the "Right," swept off in one day and lodged in the
prison of La Force; next, the prominent Jacobins:
Osselin, arrested on the 19th of Brumaire, Bazire, Chabot, and
Delaunay, accused by decree on the 24th Brumaire, Fabre d'Eglantine,
arrested on the 24th of Niv?se, Bernard, guillotined on the 3rd of
Pluvi?se, Anacharsis Clootz guillotined on the 4th of Germinal,
H?rault de S?chelles, Lacroix, Philippeaux, Camille Desmoulins and
Danton, guillotined with four others on the 10th of Germinal, Simon,
guillotined on the 24th of Germinal, and Osselin, guillotined on the
8th of Messidor.
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