sincere liberals, "forty thousand proprietors and merchants,"
the elite and mass of the Parisian population,[5123] "the majority of
men really interested in public matters," and at this moment, the common
welfare is all that concerns them. Republic or royalty is merely
a secondary thought, an idea in the back-ground; nobody dreams of
restoring the ancient regime; but very few are preoccupied with the
restoration of a limited monarchy.[5124] "On asking those most in
earnest what government they would like in place of the Convention, they
reply 'We want that no longer, we want nothing belonging to it; we want
the Republic and honest people for our rulers.'"[5125]--That is all;
their uprisal is not a political insurrection against the form of the
government, but a moral insurrection against the criminals in office.
Hence, on seeing the Convention arm their old executioners, "the tigers"
of the Reign of Terror, admitted malefactors, against them, they cannot
contain themselves.[5126] "That day," says a foreigner, who visited
many public places in Paris, "I saw everywhere the deepest despair, the
greatest expression of rage and fury.... Without that unfortunate order
the insurrection would probably not have broken out." If they take
up arms it is because they are brought back under the pikes of the
Septembriseurs, and under Robespierre's axe.--But they are only national
guards; most of them have no guns;[5127] they are in want of gunpowder,
those who have any having only five or six charges; "the great majority
do not think of fighting;" they imagine that "their presence is merely
needed to enforce a petition;" they have no artillery, no positive
leader; it is simply excitement, precipitation, disorder and mistaken
maneuvers.[5128] On the contrary, on the side of the Convention, with
Henriot's old bullies, there are eight or nine thousand regular troops,
and Bonaparte; his cannon, which rake the rue Saint Honore and the Quai
Voltaire, mow down five or six hundred sectionists. The rest disperse,
and henceforth the check-mated Parisians are not to take up their guns
against the Jacobin faction whatever it does.

III. A Directory of Regicides.

The Directory chosen among the regicides.--It selects agents
of its own species.--Leading Jacobins are deprived of their
civic rights.--The Terrorists are set free and restored to
their civic rights.--Example at Blois of these releases and
of the new admi