[34] - Seven of them, members of the
Revolutionary Committee, commanders of the armed force, members of the
district or department, national agents in Indre-et-Loire, charged
with conducting or receiving a column of eight hundred laborers,
peasant women, priests and "suspects," cause nearly six hundred of
them to be shot, sabered, drowned or knocked down on the road, not in
self-defense or to prevent escape, for these poor creatures tied two
and two marched along like sheep without a murmur, but to set a good
revolutionary example, so as to keep the people in proper subjection
by terror and enable them to line their pockets.[35] A minute
investigation has unfolded before the judges, jury and public of Blois
a long series of authentic facts and proofs, with eight days of
pleading and the most complete and glaring evidence; the sentence is
about to be pronounced. Suddenly, two weeks before Vend?miaire 13, a
decree annuls the proceedings, which have already cost over 600,000
livres, and orders a new trial in another form. Next, after
Vend?miaire 13, a representative arrives at Blois and his first care
is to set the butchers free. - About thirty knaves ruled the town
during the reign of Terror, all strangers, save four or five, "all
more or less befouled with crime.
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