He orders
the arrest and close confinement of all former nobles, men and women,
in the four departments, in twenty-four hours; he orders the
bourgeoisie of Strasbourg to pay over nine millions in twenty-four
hours; ten thousand persons in Strasbourg must give up their shoes in
twenty-four hours; random and immediate discharges of musketry on the
officers of the Rhine army - such are the measures.[149] So much the
worse for the innocent; there is no time to discern who they are; "a
blind man hunting for a pin in a dust-heap takes the whole heap."[150]
- And, whatever the order, even when it cannot be executed, so much
the worse for him to whom it is given, for the captain who, directed
by the representative to establish this or that battery in a certain
time, works all night with all his forces, "with as many men as the
place will hold."[151] The battery not being ready at the hour named,
Saint-Just sends the captain to the guillotine. - The sovereign
having once given an order it cannot be countermanded; to take back
his words would be weakening himself;[152] in the service of
omnipotence, pride is insatiable, and, to mollify it, no barbaric act
is too great.
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