ore a military commission; saved temporarily through
public commiseration, they remain in prison until the First Consul
intervenes between them and the homicidal law and consents, through
favor, to deport them to the Dutch frontier.--If they have taken up arms
against the Republic they are cut off from humanity; a Pandour[4106]
taken prisoner is treated as a man; an emigre made prisoner is treated
like a wolf--they shoot him on the spot. In some cases, even the
pettiest legal formalities are dispensed with. "When I am lucky enough
to catch 'em," writes Gen. Vandamme, "I do not trouble the military
commission to try them. They are already tried--my saber and pistols do
their business."[4107]

The second operation consists in depriving "suspects" of their liberty,
of which deprivation there are several degrees; there are various ways
of getting hold of people.--Sometimes, the "suspect" is "adjourned,"
that is to say, the order of arrest is simply suspended; he lives under
a perpetual menace that is generally fulfilled; he never knows in the
morning that he will not sleep in a prison that night. Sometimes, he is
put on the limits of his commune. Sometimes, he is confined to his house
with or without guards, and, in the former case, he is obliged to pay
them. Again, finally, and which occurs most frequently, he is shut up
in this or that common jail.--In the single department of Doubs, twelve
hundred men and women are "adjourned;" three hundred put on the limits
of the commune, fifteen hundred confined to their houses, and twenty
two hundred imprisoned.[4108] In Paris, thirty-six such prisons and more
than "violins", or temporary jails, soon filled by the revolutionary
committees, do not suffice for the service.[4109] It is estimated that,
in France, not counting more than 40,000 provisional jails, twelve
hundred prisons, full and running over, contain each more than two
hundred inmates.[4110] At Paris, notwithstanding the daily void created
by the guillotine, the number of the imprisoned on Floreal 9, year II.,
amounts to 7,840; and, on Messidor 25 following, notwithstanding the
large batches of 50 and 60 persons led in one day, and every day, to
the scaffold, the number is still 7,502.[4111] There are more than one
thousand persons in the prisons of Arras, more than one thousand five
hundred in those of Toulouse, more than three thousand in those of
Strasbourg, and more than thirteen thousand in those of Nantes. In the
tw