aubourg St. Antoine appear before
the Convention and assert the revolutionary program. "If you do
not adopt it," they say, "we will declare ourselves in a state of
insurrection; there are 40,000 men at the door."[34110] The truth is,
"about fifty bandits, scarcely known in the Faubourg," and led by a
former upholsterer, now a commissary of police, "have gathered together
on their route" all they could find in the workshops "and in the
stores," the multitude packed into the Place Vendome not knowing what
was demanded in their name.[34111]--These dummy tumults are, however,
useful; they show the Convention its master, and prepare the way for a
more efficient invasion. The day Marat was acquitted, the whole of his
sewer, male and female, came along with him; under pretext of parading
before the Convention, they invaded the hall, scattered themselves over
the benches and steps, and, supported by the galleries, installed anew
in the tribune, amidst a tempest of applause and of tumult, the usual
promoter of insurrection, pillage and assassination.[34112]--And yet,
however energetic and however persistent the pressure, the Convention,
which has yielded on so many points, will not consent to mutilate
itself. It pronounces the petition presented against the Twenty-two
calumnious; it institutes a special commission of twelve members to
search the papers of the Commune and the sections for legal proofs of
the plot openly and steadily maintained by the Jacobins against the
national representation; Mayor Pache is summoned to the bar of the
house; warrants of arrest are issued against Hebert, Dobsen and
Varlet.--Since popular manifestations have not answered the purpose, and
the Convention, instead of obeying, is rebellious, nothing is left but
to employ force.

"Since the 10th of March," says Vergniaud, in the tribune,[34113]
"murder is openly and unceasingly fomented against you."--"It is a
terrible time," says an observer, "strongly resembling that preceding
the 2nd of September."[34114]--That same evening, at the Jacobin club,
a member proposes to "exterminate the scoundrels before leaving. "I
have studied the Convention," he says[34115] "it is composed in part of
scoundrels who ought to be punished. All the supporters of Dumouriez and
the other conspirators should be put out of the way; fire the alarm gun
and close the barriers!" The following forenoon, "all the walls in Paris
are covered with posters," calling on the Parisians