ection to give each other help.[34103] Under the title of
a deputation, under the pretext of preventing disturbance, a troop of
sturdy fellows, dispatched by the neighboring section, arrives at
the meeting, and suddenly transforms the minority into a majority, or
controls the vote by force of clamor. Sometimes, at a late hour, when
the hall is nearly empty, they declare themselves a general meeting, and
about twenty or thirty will cancel the discussions of the day. At other
times, being, through the municipality, in possession of the police,
they summon an armed force to their aid, and oblige the refractory to
decamp. And, as examples are necessary to secure perfect silence, the
fifteen or twenty who have formed themselves into a full meeting, with
the five or six who form the Committee of Supervision, issue warrants of
arrest against the most prominent of their opponents. The vice-president
of the Bon-Conseil section, and the juge-de-paix of the Unite section,
learn in prison that it is dangerous to present to the Convention
an address against anarchists or sign a debate against
Chaumette.[34104]--Towards the end of May, in the section assemblies,
nobody dares open his mouth against a Jacobin motion; often, even, there
are none present but Jacobins; for example, at the Gravilliers,
they have driven out all not of their band, and henceforth no
"intriguer"[34105] is imprudent enough to present himself there.--Having
become the sovereign People assembled in Council, with full power to

* disarm,

* put on the index,

* displace,

* tax,

* send off to the army, and

* imprison whoever gives them umbrage,

they are able now, with the municipality at their back and as guides, to
turn the armament which they have obtained from the Convention against
it, attack the Girondists in their last refuge, and possess themselves
of the only fort not yet surrendered.

VI. Jacobin tactics.

Jacobin tactics to constrain the Convention.--Petition of
April 15 against the Girondins.--Means employed to obtain
signatures.--The Convention declares the petition
calumnious.--The commission of Twelve and the arrest of
Hebert.--Plans for massacres.--Intervention of the Mountain
leaders.

To conquer the last bastion of the Girondists all they have to do is
simultaneously in all sections to do what they used to do separately in
each section: substituting themselves, by fraud and by force, for the
Ve