Without mentioning
the taxes and confiscations of which they render no account, they
have, for their hoard, the ransoms offered underhandedly by "suspects"
and their families; what is more convenient?[145] And all the more,
because the Committee of General Security, even when informed, let
things take their course: to prosecute "Montagnards," would be "making
the Revolution take a step backward." One is bound to humor useful
servants who have such hard work, like that of the September killings,
to do. Irregularities, as with these September people, must be
overlooked; it is necessary to allow them a few perquisites and give
them gratuities.[146]
All this would not suffice to keep them at work if they had not been
held by an even greater attraction. - To the common run of civilized
men, the office of Septembriseur is at first disagreeable; but, after
a little practice, especially with a tyrannical nature, which, under
cover of the theory, or under the pretext of public safety, can
satiate its despotic instincts, all repugnance subsides. There is
keen delight in the exercise of absolute power; one is glad, every
hour, to assert one's omnipotence and prove it by some act, the most
conclusive of all acts being some act of destruction.
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