self, all the levelers and destroyers whom they think of use to
them, but of whom they themselves are the instruments. The motions they
make must pass at any cost and, to ensure this, they let loose against
their adversaries the low, yelping mob which others, still more
factious, will to-morrow let loose on them.

V.--Their means of action.

Dispersion of the Feuillants' club.--Pressure of the
tribunes on the Assembly.--Street mobs.

Thus, for the second time, the pretended freedom fighters seek power by
boldly employing force.--They begin by suppressing the meetings of the
Feuillants club.[2232] The customary riot is instigated against these,
whereupon ensue tumult, violent outcries and scuffles; mayor Petion
complains of his position "between opinion and law," and lets things
take their course; finally, the Feuillants are obliged to evacuate
their place of meeting.--Inside the Assembly they are abandoned to the
insolence of the galleries. In vain do they get exasperated and protest.
Ducastel, referring to the decree of the Constituent Assembly, which
forbids any manifestation of approbation or disapprobation, is greeted
with murmurs. He insists on the decree being read at the opening of each
session, and "the murmurs begin again."[2233] "Is it not scandalous,"
says Vaublanc, "that the nation's representatives speaking from the
tribune are subject to hootings like those bestowed upon an actor on
the stage!" whereupon the galleries give him three rounds more. "Will
posterity believe," says Quatremere, "that acts concerning the honor,
the lives, and the fortunes of citizens should be subject, like games in
the arena, to the applause and hisses of the spectators!" "Come to the
point!" shout the galleries. "If ever," resumes Quatremere, "the most
important of judicial acts (an act of capital indictment) can be exposed
to this scandalous prostitution of applause and menaces..." "The murmurs
break out afresh."--Every time that a sanguinary or incendiary measure
is to be carried, the most furious and prolonged clamor stops the
utterance of its opponents: "Down with the speaker! Send the reporter
of that bill to prison! Down! Down! Sometimes only about twenty of the
deputies will applaud or hoot with the galleries, and sometimes it
is the entire Assembly which is insulted. Fists are thrust in the
president's face. All that now remains is "to call down the galleries on
the floor to pass decrees," which proposi