ins are the
judges, and the public, the Marseillais, the sans-culottes, the female
furies, and men to whom murder was a delightful spectacle. The
prisoners are summoned one after another. They enter the vestibule,
which has a wicket as a door of exit. They are questioned simply as a
matter of form. Their answers are not even listened to. "Conduct this
gentleman to the Force!" says the president. The prisoner thinks he is
safe; he does not know that this phrase has been agreed upon as the
signal of death. On reaching the wicket, hatchet and sabre strokes cut
him down in the midst of his dream. The Swiss officers and soldiers
who had survived August 10 were murdered thus. Their torture lasted a
longer or shorter time, and was accomplished with more or less cruel
refinements, according to the caprice of the assassins, who were nearly
all drunk.

Night came, and torches were lighted. No {366} shadows; a grand
illumination. They must see clearly in the slaughter house. Lanterns
were placed near the lakes of blood and heaps of dead bodies, so as
plainly to distinguish the work from the workmen. There were some who
were bent on losing no details of the carnage. The spectators wanted
to take things easy. They were tired of standing too long. Benches
for men and others for dames were got ready for them. The death-rattle
of the agonizing, the vociferations of the assassins, the emulation
between the executioners who kill slowly and the victims who are in
haste to die, give joy to the spectators. There is no interruption to
the human butchery. There has been so much blood spilled that the feet
of the murderers slip on the pavement. A litter is made of straw and
the clothes of the victims, and thereafter none are killed except upon
this mattress. In this way the work is more commodiously accomplished.
The assassins have plenty of assurance. Morning dawns on the
continuation of the murders, and the wives of the murderers bring them
something to eat.

On September 2, the only persons handed over to the cut-throats, were
at the Abbey, the Carmelites, and Saint-Firmin. On September 3, the
massacre became more general. The assassins had said: "If there is no
more work, we shall have to find some." Their desire realizes itself.
Work will not be lacking. There is still some at the Force, where the
Princess de Lamballe, the preferred victim, is {367} murdered. The
assassins, who at the Abbey had been paid at th