ssity, soap and candles, but again, sugar, brandy, cinnamon,
vanilla, indigo and tea. "In the Rue de la Bourdonnaie, a number of
persons came out with loaves of sugar they had not paid for and which
they re-sold." The affair was arranged beforehand, the same as on the
5th of October, 1789; among the women are seen "several men in disguise
who did not even take the precaution of shaving," and in many places,
thanks to the confusion, they heartily abandon themselves to it. With
his feet in the fire or a pistol at his head, the master of the house
is compelled to give them "gold, money, assignats and jewels," only too
glad if his wife and daughters are not raped before his eyes as in a
town taken by assault.

VII. The Jacobin Chieftains.

The make up of the rulers.--The nature and scope of their
intellect.--The political views of M. Saule.

Such are the politicians who, after the last months of the year 1792,
rule over Paris, and, through Paris, over the whole of France, five
thousand brutes and blackguards with two thousand hussies, just about
the number a good police force would expel from the city, were it
important to give the capital a cleaning out;[33109] they too, were
convinced of their rights, all the more ardent in their revolutionary
faith, because the creed converts their vices into virtues, and
transforms their misdeeds into public services.[33110] They are the
actual sovereign people, this is why we should try to unravel their
innermost thoughts. If we truly are to comprehend the past events we
must discern the spontaneous feelings moving them on the trial of the
King, the defeat of Neerwinden, at the defection of Dumouriez, on the
insurrection in La Vendee, at the accusation of Marat, the arrest of
Hebert, and each of the dangers which in turn fall on their heads. For,
this is not borrowed emotion; it does not descend from above; they are
not a trusty army of disciplined soldiers, but a suspicious accumulation
of temporary adherents. To command them requires obedience to them,
their leaders always remaining their tool. However popular and firmly
established a chief may seem to be, he is there only for a short
time, at all times subject to their approval as the bullhorn for their
passions and the purveyor to their appetites.[33111] Such was Petion in
July, 1792, and such is Marat since the days of September. "One Marat
more or less (which will soon be seen) would not change the course
of ev