" The
three who have shown indifference, are to be confined three months;
the four who have shown derision, are to be confined until peace is
restored. Besides this, the decree of the National Agent and the
minutes of the meeting are to be printed and six thousand impressions
struck off at the expense of the signers, "the richest and most
'suspect,' " - a former treasurer of France, a notary, a grocer, the
wife of the former commandant of the gendarmerie, a widow and another
woman, - all, says the agent, " of very solid wealth and aristocracy."
"Bravo!" shouts the assembly, at this witticism; applause is given and
it sings "the national hymn." It is nine o'clock in the evening. This
public penitence lasts six hours and the Jacobins of Montargis retire,
proud of their work; having punished as a public affront, an old and
legal manifestation of respect for the public magistrate; having sent
either to the scaffold or to prison, and fined or disgraced the small
local ?lite; having degraded to the level of prostitutes and felons
under surveillance, reputable women and honorable men who are, by law,
most esteemed under a normal system of government and who, under the
revolutionary system are, by law, the least so.
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