There are thirty deputies to be
proscribed and their names are whispered about; whereupon, sixty stay
out all night, convinced that they will be seized the next morning
before they can get up.[13]
Subject to such a system, prolonged for so many months, people sink
down and become discouraged. "Everybody made themselves small so as
to pass beneath the popular yoke.[14] Everybody became one of the low
class. . . . Clothes, manners, refinement, cleanliness, the
conveniences of life, civility and politeness were all renounced." -
People wear their clothes indecently and curse and swear; they try to
resemble the sans-culottes Montagnards "who are profane and dress
themselves like so many dock-loafers;"[15] at Armonville, the carder,
who presides (at a meeting) wears a woolen cap, and similarly at
Cusset, a gauze-workman, who is always drunk. Only Robespierre dares
appear in neat attire; among the others, who do not have his
influence, among the demi-suspects with a pot-belly, such a residue of
the ancient r?gime might become dangerous; they do well not to attract
the attention of the foul-mouthed spy who cannot spell;[16] especially
is it important at a meeting to be one of the crowd and remain
unnoticed by the paid claqueurs, drunken swaggerers and "fat
petticoats" of the tribunes.
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