urn the monarch and his imps in his palace,
impale the deputies on their benches, and bury them beneath the flaming
ruins of their den."[3137]-On the first cannon shot being fired on the
frontier,

"it is indispensable that the people should close the gates of the towns
and unhesitatingly make way with every priest, public functionary and
anti-revolutionary, known instigators and their accomplices."--"It would
be wise for the people's magistrates to keep constantly manufacturing
large quantities of strong, sharp, short-bladed, double-edged knives, so
as to arm each citizen known as a friend of his country. Now, the art of
fighting with these terrible weapons consists in this: Use the left arm
as buckler, and cover it up to the arm-pit with a sleeve quilted with
some woollen stuff, filled with rags and hair, and then rush on the
enemy, the right hand wielding the knife."[3138]--Let us use these
knives as soon as possible, for "what means are now remaining for us to
put an end to the problems which overwhelm us? I repeat it, no other but
executions by the people."[3139]--The Throne is at last down; but "be
careful not to give way to false pity!.... No quarter! I advise you
to decimate the anti-revolutionary members of the municipality, of the
justices of the peace, of the members of the departments and of the
National Assembly."[3140]--At the outset, a few lives would have
sufficed: "five hundred heads ought to have fallen when the Bastille
was taken, and all would then have gone on well." But, through lack of
foresight and timidity, the evil was allowed to spread, and the more it
spread the larger the amputation should have been.--With the sure,
keen eye of the surgeon, Marat gives its dimensions; he has made his
calculation beforehand. In September, 1792, in the Council at the
Commune, he estimates forty thousand as the number of heads that should
be laid low.[3141] Six weeks later, the social abscess having enormously
increased, the figures swell in proportion; he now demands two hundred
and seventy thousand heads,[3142] always on the score of humanity, "to
ensure public tranquility," on condition that the operation be entrusted
to him, as the temporary enforcer of the justice.--Except for this last
point, the rest is granted to him; it is unfortunate that he could not
see with his own eyes the complete fulfillment of his programme, the
batches condemned by the revolutionary Tribunal, the massacres of Lyons
and Toulon,