might perhaps have been approved of; but the
leading members of the Convention, from views personal to themselves,
appended to it certain conditions which excited new disgust. They
decreed, first, that the electoral bodies of France, in choosing
representatives to the two new Councils, must elect at least two-thirds
of the present members of Convention; and, secondly, that if full
two-thirds were not returned, the Convention should have the right to
supply the deficiency out of their own body. It was obvious that this
machinery had no object but the continuance of the present legislators
in power; and the nation, and especially the superior classes in Paris,
were indignant at conduct which they considered as alike selfish and
arbitrary. The royalist party gladly lent themselves to the diffusion of
any discontents; and a formidable opposition to the measures of the
existing government was organised.

The Convention meantime continued their sittings, and exerting all their
skill and influence, procured from many districts of the country reports
accepting of the New Constitution, with all its conditions. The
Parisians, being nearer and sharper observers, and having abundance of
speakers and writers to inform and animate them, assembled in the
several sections of the city, and proclaimed their hostility to the
Convention and its designs. The National Guard, consisting of armed
citizens, almost unanimously sided with the enemies of the Convention;
and it was openly proposed to march to the Tuileries, and compel a
change of measures by force of arms.

The Convention, perceiving their unpopularity and danger, began to look
about them anxiously for the means of defence. There were in and near
Paris 5000 regular troops, on whom they thought they might rely, and who
of course contemned the National Guard as only half-soldiers. They had
besides some hundreds of artillerymen; and they now organized what they
called "the Sacred Band," a body of 1500 ruffians, the most part of them
old and tried instruments of Robespierre. With these means they prepared
to arrange a plan of defence; and it was obvious that they did not want
materials, provided they could find a skilful and determined head.

The Insurgent Sections placed themselves under the command of _Danican_,
an old general of no great skill or reputation. The Convention opposed
to him _Menou_; and he marched at the head of a column into the section
Le Pelletier to disarm the Na