fter having demanded their names, professions and wealth they
were sent down to a cart standing at the door of the Palais de
Justice; the judges then stepped out on the balcony and pronounced the
death-sentence." The same proceedings took place at Cambrai,
Arras, Nantes, Le Mans, Bordeaux, Nimes, Lyons, Strasbourg, and
elsewhere.--Evidently, the judicial comedy is simply a parade; they
make use of it as one of the respectable means, among others less
respectable, to exterminate people whose opinions are not what they
should be, or who belong to the proscribed classes;[4133] Samson, at
Paris, and his colleagues in the provinces, the execution-platoons of
Lyons and Nantes, are simply the collaborators of murderers properly so
called, while legal massacres complete other massacres pure and simple.

Of this latter description, the fusillades of Toulon come first, where
the number of those who are shot largely surpasses one thousand;[4134]
next the great drownings of Nantes, in which 4,800 men, women and
children perished,[4135] the other drownings, for which no figures may
be given;[4136] then the countless popular murders committed in France
between July 14, 1789, and August 10, 1792; the massacre of one 1,300
prisoners in Paris, in September, 1792; the long train of assassinations
which, in July, August and September, 1789, extends over the entire
territory; finally, the dispatch of the prisoners, either shot or
sabered, without trial at Lyons and in the West. Even excepting those
who had died fighting or who, taken with arms in their hands, were
shot down or sabered on the spot, there were 10,000 persons slaughtered
without trial in the province of Anjou alone:[4137] accordingly, the
instructions of the Committee of Public Safety, also the written
orders of Carrier and Francastel, direct generals to "bleed freely" the
insurgent districts,[4138] and spare not a life: it is estimated that,
in the eleven western departments, the dead of both sexes and of all
ages exceeded 400,000.[4139]--Considering the program and principles of
the Jacobin sect this is no great number; they might have killed a good
many more. But time was wanting; during their short reign they did what
they could with the instrument in their hands. Look at their machine,
the gradual construction of its parts, the successive stages of its
operation from its starting up to Thermidor 9, and see how limited the
period of its operation was. Organized March 30 an