.--In the evening, on the Feuillants terrace, other
deputies are subjected to the same outrages; the gendarmerie tries in
vain to protect them, while the 'commandant of the National Guard, on
leaving his post, is attacked and cut down."[2659]--Meanwhile, some
of the Jacobins in the lobbies "doom the majority of the Assembly to
destruction"; one orator declares that "the people have a right to form
lists of proscription," and the club accordingly decides on printing and
publishing the names of all the deputies who acquitted Lafayette.--Never
was physical constraint displayed and applied with such open
shamelessness.[2660]

On the following day, August 9, armed men gather around the approaches
to the Assembly, and sabers are seen even in the corridors.[2661] The
galleries, more imperious than ever, cheer, and break out in ironic
shouts of triumph and approval every time the attacks of the previous
evening are denounced in the tribune. The president calls the offenders
to order more than twenty times, but his voice and his bell are drowned
in the uproar. It is impossible to express an opinion. Most of the
representatives who were maltreated the evening before, write that they
will not return, while others, who are present, declare that they will
not vote again "if they cannot be secure of freedom of conscience in
their deliberations." At this utterance, which expresses the secret
sentiment of "nearly the whole of the Assembly,"[2662] "all the members
of the 'Right', and many of the 'Left' arise simultaneously and exclaim:
'Yes, yes; we will debate no longer unless we are free!"--As usual,
however, the majority gives away the moment effective measures are to be
adopted; its heart sinks, as it always has done, on being called upon
to act in self-defense, while these official declarations, one on top of
the other, in hiding from it the gravity of the danger, sink it deeper
in its own timidity. At this same session the syndic-attorney of the
department reports that the mob is ready, that 900 armed men had just
entered Paris, that the tocsin would be rung at midnight, and that the
municipality tolerates or favors the insurrection. At this same session,
the Minister of Justice gives notice that "the laws are powerless,"
and that the government is no longer responsible. At this same session,
Petion, the mayor, almost avowing his complicity, appears at the bar of
the house, and declares positively that he will have nothing to do wi