nows twinges of conscience, neither
Barras, a condottiere open to the highest bidder, and who understands
the value of blows, nor Reubell, a sort of bull, who, becoming excited,
sees red, nor Merlin de Douai, the terrible legist, lay inquisitor and
executioner in private.[5167] As usual with the Jacobins, these men have
unsheathed the sword and brandished it. In contempt of the constitution,
they provoked discussions in the army and let the Legislative Corps
see that, if it did not yield, it would be put out at the point of the
bayonet. They let loose against it, "as in the good old times,"[5168]
their executive riff-raff, and line the avenues and tribunes with "their
bandits of both sexes." They collect together their gangs of roughs,
five or six thousand terrorists from Paris and the departments, and two
thousand officers awaiting orders or on half-pay. In default of Hoche,
whose unconstitutional approach was reported and then prevented, they
have Augereau, arrived expressly from Italy, and who states publicly,
"I am sent for to kill the royalists." It is impossible to find a more
narrow-minded and greater military bully; Reubell, himself, on seeing
him, could not help but exclaim: What a sturdy brigand!"--On the 18th
of Fructidor this official swordsman, with eight or ten thousand troops,
surrounds and invades the Tuileries. The representatives are arrested in
their committee-rooms or domiciles, or pursued, tracked and hunted down,
while the rest of their opponents, notables, officers, heads of bureaux,
journalists, former ministers and directors, Barthelemy and Carnot, are
treated in the same way. Barbe-Marbois, on demanding by virtue of what
law they were arrested,[5169] is told, "by the law of the saber," while
Sotin, Minister of the Police, adds with a smile, "You may be sure that
after what I have taken on myself, it matters little whether one is more
or less compromised."--Thus purged, the two Councils complete themselves
their purgation; they cancel, in forty-nine departments, the election of
their colleagues; through this decree and transportation, through forced
and voluntary resignations, two hundred and fourteen representatives
are withdrawn from the Legislative Corps, while one hundred and eighty
others, through fear or disgust, cease to attend its meetings.[5170]
Nothing remains of the two Councils, except, as in the English
Parliament under Cromwell, a "rump," which rump does business under
drawn swords.