ngly or by the dozen, and sometimes
in vast numbers; at first, the sixty-seven Girondist deputies, who are
executed or proscribed; then, the seventy-three members of the "Right,"
swept off in one day and lodged in the prison of La Force; next, the
prominent Jacobins:

Osselin, arrested on the 19th of Brumaire, Bazire, Chabot, and Delaunay,
accused by decree on the 24th Brumaire, Fabre d'Eglantine, arrested
on the 24th of Nivose, Bernard, guillotined on the 3rd of Pluviose,
Anacharsis Clootz guillotined on the 4th of Germinal, Herault de
Sechelles, Lacroix, Philippeaux, Camille Desmoulins and Danton,
guillotined with four others on the 10th of Germinal, Simon, guillotined
on the 24th of Germinal, and Osselin, guillotined on the 8th of
Messidor.--Naturally, the others take warning and are careful. At the
opening of the session they are seen entering the hall, looking uneasy,
full of distrust,"[3201] like animals driven into a pen and suspicious
of a trap.

"Each," writes an eye-witness, "acted and spoke with circumspection,
for fear of being charged with some crime: in effect, nothing was
unimportant, the seat one took, a glance of the eye, a gesture, a
murmur, a smile."

Hence, they flock instinctively to the side which is best sheltered, the
left side.

"The tide flowed towards the summit of the Mountain; the right side was
deserted.... Many took no side at all, and, during the session, often
changed their seats, thinking that they might thus elude the spy by
donning a mixed hue and keeping on good terms with everybody. The most
prudent never sat down; they kept off the benches, at the foot of the
tribune, and, on matters getting to be serious, slipped quietly out of
the hall."

Most of them took refuge in their committee-rooms; each tries to be
over-looked, to be obscure, to appear insignificant or absent.[3202]
During the four months following the 2nd of June, the hall of the
Convention is half or three-quarters empty; the election of a president
does not bring out two hundred and fifty voters;[3203] only two hundred,
one hundred, fifty votes, elect the Committees of Public Safety
and General Security; about fifty votes elect the judges of
the Revolutionary Tribunal; less than ten votes elect their
substitutes;[3204] not one vote is cast for the adoption of the decree
indicting the deputy, Dulaure;[3205] "no member rises for or against
it; there is no vote;" the president, nevertheless, pronounces the
act pass