n a hundred yards; they cheer
to excess. Each wants to escort the prisoner; the cab of Mathon de la
Varenne is invaded; "they perch themselves on the driver's seat, at the
doors, on top, and behind."[3196]--A few even display strange fits
of tact. Two of the butchers, still covered with blood, who lead the
chevalier de Bertrand home, insist on going up stairs with him to
witness the joy of his family; after their terrible task they need the
relaxation of tender emotion. On entering, they wait discreetly in the
drawing-room until the ladies have been prepared; the happiness of which
they are witnesses melts them; they remain some time, refuse money,
expressing their gratitude and depart.[3197]--Still more extraordinary
are the vestiges of innate politeness. A market-porter desirous of
embracing a discharged prisoner, first asks his permission. Old "hags,"
who had just clapped their hands at the slaughtering, stop the guards
"violently" as they hurry Weber along, in white silk stockings, across
pools of blood: "Hey, guard, look out, you are making Monsieur walk in
the gutter!"[3198] In short, they display the permanent qualities
of their race and class; they seem to be neither above nor below the
average of their brethren, Most of them, probably, would never have done
anything very monstrous had a rigid police, like that which maintains
order in ordinary times, kept them in their shops or at home in their
lodgings or in their tap-rooms.

But, in their own eyes, they are so many kings; "sovereignty is
committed to their hands,"[3199] their powers are unlimited; whoever
doubts this is a traitor, and is properly punished; he must be put out
of the way; while, for royal councillors, they take maniacs and rascals,
who, through monomania or calculation, have preach all that to them:
just like a Negro king surrounded by white slave-dealers, who urge him
into raids, and by black sorcerers, who prompt him to massacre. How
could such a man with such guides, and in such an office, be retarded by
the formalities of justice, or by the distinctions of equity? Equity and
justice are the elaborate products of civilization, while he is merely a
political savage. In vain are the innocent recommended to his mercy!

"Look here, citizen,[31100] do you, too, want to put us to sleep?
Suppose that those cursed Prussian and Austrian beggars were in Paris,
would they pick out the guilty? Wouldn't they strike right and left,
the same as the Swiss