, there are at
first 144,000, then 150,000, and finally 153,000 who stay away from
the polls; these, certainly, and for a much better reason, do not show
themselves at the assemblies of their sections. Commonly, out of three
or four thousand citizens, only fifty or sixty attend; one of these,
called a general assembly, which signifies the will of the people to the
Convention, is composed of twenty-five voters.[3371] Accordingly, what
would a sensible man, a friend of order, do in these dens of fanatics?
He stays at home, as on stormy days; he lets the shower of words spend
itself, not caring to be spattered in the gutter of nonsense which
carries off the filth of this district.

If he leaves his house at all he goes out for a walk, the same as in
old times, to indulge the tastes he had under the old regime, those of
a talkative, curious on-looker and friendly stroller, of a Parisian safe
in his well run town. "Yesterday evening," writes a man who feels the
coming Reign of Terror, "I took my stand in the middle of the right
alley of the Champs-Elysees;[3372] it was thronged with--who do you
think? Would you believe it, with moderates, aristocrats, owners of
property, and very pretty women, elegantly dressed, seeking the caresses
of the balmy spring breeze! It was a charming sight. All were gay and
smiling. I was the only one that was not so... I withdrew hastily, and,
on passing through the Tuileries garden, I saw a repetition of what I
had seen before, forty thousand wealthy people scattered here and there,
almost as many as Paris contains."--These are evidently the sheep ready
for the slaughter-house. They no longer think of defense, they have
abandoned their posts to the sans-culottes, "they refuse all civil and
military functions,"[3373] they avoid doing duty in the National Guard
and instead pay their substitutes. In short, they withdraw from a game
which, in 1789, they desired to play without understanding it, and in
which, since the end of 1791, they have always burnt their fingers. The
cards may be handed over to others, especially as the cards are dirty
and the players fling them in each others' faces; as for themselves they
are spectators, they have no other ambitions.--"Leave them their old
enjoyments,[3374] leave them the pleasure of going and coming throughout
the kingdom; but do not force them to take part in the war. Subject them
to the heaviest taxation and they will not complain; nobody will even
know th